I've Got You
by Keirra
Summary: Sometimes you find exactly what you need in the last place you expect. Noara is a Jedi Knight turned Alliance Commander who isn't sure either role is right for her, Torian a Mandalorian who has never really felt accepted by his peers. When their paths cross on Darvannis neither could have predicted how it would change everything.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

* * *

Raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, Noara Starspark looked around the landing pad to locate the shuttle Theron had said was fueled up and ready for her trip to Darvannis. Spotting it on the far north side she started walking that direction, exchanging smiles and nods with the Alliance members she passed on her way.

"Remember," Lana said from her side, "we need GEMINI for this plan to work but if it looks too dangerous, or if Theron's mysterious allies aren't up to the task, come back and we will figure something else out. GEMINI will make it easier to defeat Arcann but without you it will be impossible."

When Noara didn't respond Lana turned to see she wasn't paying attention but was instead staring off into the distance. Following her line of sight Lana found nothing particularly interesting that stood out to her, just the Defender and beyond that the forest.

"Noara, are you even listening to me?"

The Jedi jumped at Lana's voice and turned to her like she hadn't even noticed her presence. Realizing her friend and adviser had been speaking she smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry what did you say Lana?"

Lana frowned, Noara's wandering attention had been an ongoing trend the last month or so and it had her worried. She had reservations about sending Noara on her own to retrieve GEMINI but Theron had been insistent that the trip would do her good. It had been a few weeks since she had narrowly escaped Vaylin on Gault's little money-making trip and other than the daily running of the base hadn't seen any action since. He figured she was getting bored and fidgety, staying in one place so long. She had spent the two years before her imprisonment constantly on the move from mission to mission after all. He hoped that getting out for a bit would help refocus her mind.

While she wasn't sure she agreed, Lana didn't have a better idea at the time so she stopped protesting. Now she almost wanted to rethink that, but it was too late. Noara had decided she was going, and moreover that she was going alone.

"I do very little around here and I know everyone else is busy," she had argued when everyone, save Kaliyo, had expressed reservations at letting her go off on her own. "I'm not helpless and I will be with Theron's allies so I won't really be alone. Now off you all go, and stop looking at me like a disobedient child Aric. Technically I'm 27." Before anyone else could say anything she had turned on her heel and marched out of the War Room.

Lana had found her packing a few things in her quarters and unwilling to continue the discussion when she had tried to explain that she wasn't working on anything that couldn't wait a few days. And now on her way to the shuttle she was again lost in her thoughts.

"Are you sure you want to go alone Commander?"

Noara sighed, "yes. It will be nice to have some time on my own, I'll be able to do some proper meditation. Also, I will have you know I have been on my own before. It's been a while, but I can handle this."

Lana nodded and watched as she opened the door to the shuttle and slung her bag inside before turning back around.

"And I was listening," she said with a smirk. "GEMINI is important but don't die trying to get her. You keep worrying like this your hair is gunna go gray."

Shaking her head Lana called out as the shuttle doors were sliding shut. "And whose fault would that be?" She stayed on the landing pad, watching the shuttle take off and disappear into the sky and hoped this wasn't as terrible of an idea as she feared.

* * *

Eager to be on her way, as soon as the doors were closed Noara was already in the pilot's seat getting the shuttle running and ready for takeoff. She pushed her comm unit to inform the ground control she was ready for takeoff as she started to guide the shuttle off the ground and toward the sky.

"You're supposed to wait for us to okay it before you take off Commander," the officer on duty said, his exasperation obvious in his crisp Imperial accent.

"Sorry, next time maybe." She said, flipping off the comm unit.

Once she had passed out of Odessen's atmosphere and into the dark of space she pulled up the coordinates for Darvannis that Theron had downloaded for her. Putting in the calculations for the trip only took a moment before she was able to active the lightspeed generator and the small shuttle lurched into hyperspace.

She leaned back in her chair. It was an almost four-day trip from Odessen to Darvannis, a planet she had never heard of before just past Quesh, and she was looking forward to every quiet moment of it. Quiet moments to herself had been scarce since Lana had saved her on Zakuul.

Noara rubbed her chest, as though that could help the ache she felt. She was never quite prepared for the shot of pain she experienced every time she saw the Defender and remembered that, save Teeseven, she didn't know where any of them were. Kira, Doc, Scourge, stars she even missed Rusk even if his obsession with success over the lives of his men still bothered her.

Lana, Theron, Aric, and all the others, they were great. She appreciated and valued every one of them for what they did for her and the Alliance, but it wasn't the same. She had shared so much with them, Kira and Doc especially since they had been with her so long. Losing them must be what losing your family feels like, she mused. Not that she knew anything about families personally, but she could infer at least that much. She missed them so much it physically hurt sometimes, especially when she found herself turning to ask Kira her opinion on something or she got injured and she still had the instinct to call out for Doc, only to remember neither of them was there. It wasn't right, they were supposed to be with her, but then nothing had been "right" since Lana had freed her. The whole galaxy was in chaos, not just her own life.

Maybe quiet time alone wasn't such a good idea.

She pushed herself out of her chair, determined not to spend the next few days brooding over her losses.

Deciding that a good meditation was the first order of business, she headed to the back of the shuttle to find a place to sit. There wasn't much to the shuttle, for it just being her she didn't need much really. There was a refresher just behind the cockpit and the rest of the shuttle was one large open space. There was a single bunk along the refresher's wall and a small food preparation station with the essentials, just a hotplate, chiller and water kettle. Several boxes were stacked alone the walls, basic equipment, rations, and spare parts for the shuttle in case of emergencies.

Noara looked around and was surprised that she felt more at home in a bare tiny ship than she did in her quarters at the base, that was easily larger than the shuttle's main compartment.

It seemed no matter how far she strayed from her Jedi roots the lack of need for luxury and material goods was something she needed.

She walked to about the middle of the main area and sat on the floor in the quarter lotus position, legs crossed and her feet resting below each knee. Before her stint in carbonite she could easily sit in the more strenuous full lotus, with her legs crossed and her feet resting on top of each thigh, but her flexibility had declined in her imprisonment. She was working toward getting back to that level, but it was slow going, a necessity or she risked injuring herself. The last thing she could afford was an injury because she was rushing her recovery.

She took a few deep, measured breaths to start her meditation. She had once done them daily, but as of late hadn't been able to fit them into her schedule. Master Doran would berate her for it if only he knew.

If he was alive.

No, none of that, she scolded herself.

Forcing her mind to let go of the melancholy she had fallen into, Noara took several deep measured breaths before reaching out to the Force around her. Being acutely aware of the Force around her always felt like coming home, like this was what she should feel like all the time. Her worries and pains faded as the Force soothed them away.

She could feel the emptiness of the ship around her, but it didn't feel lonely, but instead it was warm and filled with the presence of the Force.

It felt like months since she had last balanced her shyakras, but technically it had been years. There were seven shyakras, the points in the body that resonated with the Force, and she had eight days of travel. If she could stay on task she could at least begin undoing the damage five years of missed meditations had caused.

Today she was starting with her Muladhara shyakra, the one located at the base of her spine. She needed the grounding and sense of confidence and safety it being in balance would give her.

Noara lingered in the Force, bathing her subconscious in the warm red of her Muladhara shyakra for a few hours, until the need for food pulled her back to reality. When she opened her eyes and rose from the depth of her meditation she felt better than she had before. She blinked her eyes slowly, coming back to awareness and adjusting to the lights inside the shuttle before getting up gingerly. She was stiff from sitting on a hard floor for so long, something else she was no longer used to.

hadn't meditated that long in months, not in years she reminded herself, thinking of the time she lost in carbonate, and was stiff. Next time she would remember to sit on a cushion.

After prepping some of the rations stored in the chiller and brewing herself a mug of herbal tea, she made her way back to the cockpit and plopped down into the pilot's chair. She pulled out her datapad and pulled up the novel she was currently reading.

She had long taken guilty pleasure in reading trashy romance holonovels. Her favorite series, Escapades in Wild Space, had two new releases during her five-year carbonite nap. Having them to catch up on instead of being forced to wait for them to be released was one of the few bright sides she had found in her situation.

She slid down comfortably in the chair and started reading.

That was how Noara spent her four days of solitude, meditating on her first four shyakras, reading A Bounty Contract on Your Heart (the exciting tale of a Chiss bounty hunter who falls in love with his mark and decides instead to take out the crime lord who order the hit), and working out her lightsaber katas. The shuttle was quite roomy enough for her to swing her sabers around safely, but she was able to do the katas with no issue.

It wasn't until she was about two hours away from Darvannis that she pulled up the mission data Theron had loaded onto her pad before she left. She had gotten a mission rundown by SCORPIO and Theron but wanted her to go over it again just to be sure she didn't miss or forget anything.

According to SCORPIO's data the GEMINI template was stored in the main factory but getting to it was going to be the problem. The place was basically a fortress with all its defenses, including the shield they kept up constantly and the large guns along the perimeter that, if their intel was right, would automatically try and shoot her out of the sky when she approached to land.

As for the factory itself they knew little of what was inside. All Theron had been able to find out was that the factory was fully automated with no sentient workers on site at all. That was both a relief and annoyance. She never liked taking the lives of others, even her enemies, but people could be reasoned with, or even in a clinch Force persuaded. Skytroopers and battle droids followed their programming no matter what you said.

It seemed Theron was right to call in help for this one, the Alliance was growing every day, but they didn't have the resources to take down a target like this. Setting the pad down she slouched in her chair, feet propped up on the control panel to get a bit more comfortable. It was, she had discovered, the more comfortable way to sit in that chair for long stretches of time while she read. She would never sit like this if someone was around to see it, it was unbecoming of the serious, mature leader they expected her to be. Some days Noara was pretty sure Lana and Theron had forgotten that she was only 22 mentally, making every one of her advisers and officers older and more experienced than she.

So like she had when the council gave her a padawan in almost the same breath as granting her knighthood, she buried her anxieties about her current position. Forced herself to present a mature and collected appearance as often as she could, and spurts of humor when she felt her mask cracking.

She was pulled out of her musing by a beeping on the control panel, indicating the ship was about to come out of light speed. She sat up, swinging her feet onto the floor. With a familiar lurch the ship dropped out of light speed and back into normal space. Out the forward window she could see the planet, the surface the tell-tell orange shade of all desert planets. No one had told her it was a desert planet. She would be lucky to get home without being completely sunburnt since she had only packed her usual attire, which bared more skin then she would like on a desert world.

"Oh well," she sighed, starting the shuttles descent to the landing coordinates Theron has provided. "Time to see who's waiting for me down there."

Theron had been unusually tight lipped about their new allies. He wouldn't say who they were, or how he knew them, just that they were skilled and had the firepower to make this happen. When asked if they could be trusted all he would say was "they won't stab us in the back. Just shoot us in the face."

Not surprisingly Noara found little comfort in that, but if Theron had placed his trust in them so would she. Even a fair-weather friend was a boon when the sun was shining.

Her descent into the atmosphere went smoothly but as she approached her landing coordinates she felt a sharp warning in the Force. She reacted immediately, changing course to the left just as two blaster bolts tore past her. If she hadn't turned those would have destroyed her little shuttle.

"I guess that means I'm close," she muttered, remembering the information about the perimeter guns. On the rest of the trip down, until she was too close to the surface for the guns to automatically target her, she had to dodge rounds three more times. Thanks to her quick reflexes and connection to the Force when she landed the shuttle it had no new dings or scratches. Koth would be proud, he was very attached to all of their ships and could sometimes take it quite personally when one was damaged.

After the shuttle had settled securely on the ground and she had powered everything down she sat in her seat for several long minutes. She knew she needed to get up, go see who she was working with, but she was tempted to just… not. She wasn't ready to give up her peaceful solitude.

Almost as if on a cue, the shuttle's comm device started beeping. She leaned forward and pressed the button to turn it on. A small blue holo of Lana appeared above the dash.

"Commander, I see you've landed safely." It wasn't posed as a question.

"Lana," Noara said, crossing her arms over her chest, "did you and Theron put a tracker on my ship?"

"Theron put them on all of the ships, in case of deserters running off with one."

"Ah I see. That was good thinking, but I hope we never need it. Yes, I just landed, I was about to go meet Theron's mysterious friends when you called." She stood, stretching her arms above her head before dropping them and reaching for the comm device. "I'll check in later when I have an idea of how things are progressing so far."

"Good luck Commander, may the Force ever serve you."

"And may it be with you Lana."

The comm device shut off, leaving Noara alone again but now she was standing, and it was harder to justify not just getting on with things. She slipped into the shuttle's tiny fresher to check her appearance. She didn't know who was waiting for her out there, but she wanted to make a good first impression. After making a few adjustments to her pony tail and touching up the purple around her eyes and on her lips, she felt ready to face anything.

As soon as she stepped off her ship into the dry desert heat she knew exactly who she was working with. Only Mandalorians wore armor like she saw every person in camp sporting. She had worked with their kind once before but was more accustomed to being at odds with them. This promised to be an interesting few days if nothing else. She flagged down a passing warrior and asked where she could find the person in charge and was directed to a tent on the side of the camp. From the entrance she could see a holotable and two Mandos, a man and a woman, standing next to it. She headed over to them assuming one of them was probably who she needed to see. The man looked up at her approach and sneered at her.

"Well you're on the wrong planet! The Hutt Pleasure Worlds are a dozen parsecs out."

Noara was taken back, and a little insulted. She knew her attire wasn't normal Jedi regs, being a sleeveless top that bared most of her midriff, but she had never been accused of being a whore before. Even when dealing with Hutts.

"Shut up, Khomo."

The woman had turned to look at her at and smiled, moving around the table to approach Noara. She recognized her immediately, even with her face lightly lined with the five years since they last saw one another. Shae Vizla. The Torch from Rishi. Noara felt much better about the whole operation now, she had worked with Shae in the past and been impressed with the woman's skills.

Shae held out her arm for Noara to grasp in welcome. "You're in good shape for a dead woman."

Noara smiled, "even a dead girl's gotta stay in shape when she leads a life like mine." She had decided a few weeks ago humor was the best way to deal with all the various "I thought you were dead" comments she received whenever she ran into someone from her past. Kriff, she hadn't even found her crew yet and still often heard what a surprise her survival was. She was starting to think she should take out an ad, or do a live HoloNet conference, just to inform people that the rumors of her death were highly inaccurate. Theron and Lana had not found that suggestion amusing at all, but Kaliyo had laughed.

She shook her head, releasing Shae's arm, "Shae Vizla. I wasn't expecting Mandalorians but it's damn good to see you."

"We're what you got. Heard you need a factory pulverized."

"A dozen clans stand with Mandalore the Avenger," Khomo said, grinning widely at Noara. Apparently, his insinuation about her being a whore was forgotten in the face of impending battle. "We're ready for blood… even if our enemies are built of metal and grease."

Noara turned to Shae, arching an eyebrow in question. "It's "Mandalore the Avenger" now? No more "The Torch?""

Shae shook her head, "still not happy that name caught on. It's been a rough few years. Eternal Fleet's kept us under siege on the heartworlds. I picked up the title along the way. When your spy-boy offered a chance to hit back, I agreed. Been on defense too long."

"Then we fight together, Mandalore, against Zakuul and the galaxy. We'll topple Arcann yet." Honestly, Noara thought, this was probably their best break so far. If the Mandalorians would stand with them that bolstered their fighting power by at least double. She had fought enough of them to know a well-trained Mando was as good as four typical soldiers. Must be the culture.

"Right now," Shae said, "I would settle for one good victory."

"Have you started deploying your troops around the factory?" Noara asked, not sure how long the Mandalorian's had been here before her. Long enough to set up camp at least.

Khomo pulled up the holotable's map and they started pointing out where the troops were located. The place was a fortress and was taking rotating teams of 200 commandos each and still standing.

"Our next attack starts in five. Forward teams are in position to down the energy shield."

Shae grinned at her, "you wanna be useful? Capture the perimeter guns and retarget the factory. Torian!"

The last word was directed behind her, and Noara turned to see a tall blonde Mandalorian in black armor approaching. He was handsome, enough that the oddly shaped scars on his cheeks didn't detract from his appeal but rather added to it. He moved to stand next to her with a quiet confidence that immediately made her like the man. Unlike Khomo who almost radiated cockiness into the air around him, it was easy to see this man was a capable warrior who hadn't let that go to his head.

"Mand'alor," he said, nodding his head slightly in respect to Shae.

"Noara, Torian. Torian, Noara," Shae said by way of introductions. "Torian's chief of Clan Cadera and the best scout we have. Go with him to take care of the guns, he knows the way."

Torian turned to face Noara, having to look down to meet her eyes. He was almost a whole head taller than her. "Guns are in sector nine. Plenty of Skytroopers over there. Keep up. I'll try to protect you."

Noara smiled, it had been a long time since someone offered to protect her. It was almost cute, and it was definitely sweet. She nodded and gestured with her hands for him to lead the way. "Lead the way. We have a factory to conquer."

Torian returned her smile before bowing to Shae respectfully. "Ret'urcye mhi, Mand'alor," he said before nodding to Noara to follow him out of the tent.

"Stay Alive," Shae called after them. "Both of you."

As they reached the door to the tent Noara glanced back over her shoulder. "I just spent the last five years dead. I'm in no hurry to do it again." Shae's surprised laughter followed them out of the tent and into the dry desert air.

"Let me just grab a few things from my shuttle and I'll be ready to go," Noara said, following the path she had taken earlier from her ship to the command tent. Torian fell into easy step next to her. Around them the camp was a flurry of activity as everyone was preparing for the upcoming assault.

"Mand'alor didn't tell me anything about you," Torian said as they reached the shuttle.

"If you got questions, go right ahead and ask," she said, ducking into the shuttle's door and starting to dig through her bag she left on the bunk. He watched her stick slim medi-sprays and various battle adrenals into the two small pouches on her belt. "Unless it's horribly personal I'm an open datapad."

"Like to know who I'm going into battle with, if they can cover my back or if I need to watch both of ours. How are you in a fight?" He asked carefully.

Noara could feel his hesitation and caution in the Force and she couldn't blame him. He was being asked to go into battle with a complete stranger, it was a valid concern. The question might have insulted someone else, she knew Lana or Aric wouldn't have taken it in good humor, but Noara found it a bit refreshing that at least one person didn't know who she was. Her days of anonymity were all but gone and she'd be lying if she said she didn't miss them. Now more often than not she found herself on uneven ground with new acquaintances because they knew so much about her by reputation.

She hopped out of the shuttle to look up at him with a smile. "I'm Jedi Master Noara Starspark, at your service." She frowned slightly, "though I am not sure how much the title matters anymore, what with the Jedi Order being gone and all."

"It does if you have the skills to back it up Master Jedi." Torian offered with a small smile, moving from the shuttle towards a parked speeder. "Either way I got your back." He swung his leg over the speeder and started it up with a roar. It was the only one, and there was plenty of room for Noara to sit behind him. She slid her hands around his torso, fingers pressed against the well-worn breastplate to keep herself in place as the speeder darted forward.

"And I have yours Torian." She said, her voice raised enough to be heard over the wind before tapping her fingers on his chest. "Besides, this should be fun."

* * *

By the time they returned to camp Torian wasn't sure if he would call it "fun" as he usually defined the word, but it was certainly interesting. Before they had started their assault of the perimeter guns he had concerns about how well they would work together, he hadn't fought alongside a force user before and most of his comrades used ranged weapons which significantly cut down on the risk of friendly fire. He could just imagine Mand'alor's anger if he injured her when they would undoubtedly get in one another's way on the battlefield. It almost made him wish he still fought with a electrostaff instead. Almost. If they were fighting people, he might have actually swapped his rifle for one but they aren't as effective on droids.

He had planned to talk to her about it once they had approached the first gun tower, while they were just out of sight of the Skytroopers, before engaging the enemy. However, once the droids were in sight she had flashed him a quick grin and told him to "keep up if you can" before leaping 25 meters to land directly in front of the nearest droid.

She didn't miss a beat before swinging at it viciously with her two blazing blue lightsabers. He had never seen anything like it, even the Zakuulian knights he had fought that used sabers and the Force never showed any sign of being able to do something like that. He watched her quickly, and gracefully, dart around a second Skytrooper, severing one of it's arms and then its head and one of it's legs before stabbing it through the chest with both blades - right where it's internal power core was located - before it even had time to fall into the dirt.

He had wanted to know if she was any good in a fight. He hadn't said it out loud but what he really wanted to know was how much she was going to slow him down, but if her opening move was any indication he was going to slow her down.

Luckily Torian had never been one to back down from a challenge.

He lifted his rifle and took aim at the Skytrooper trying to approach her from behind while she fought the only other one still standing in the first group. He brought it down with three quick shots to its chest piece. She turned as it fell, glancing at it to make sure it was down before looking his way and smiling gratefully.

Torian jogged from his spot, where she had started her jump, to join her. She was still smiling when he reached her, already looking up the zig-zagged path to the gunhouse.

"Master Jedi," he said, drawing her attention back to him. "Next time you do that I'd appreciate a little heads up."

"Oh? Did I surprise the big tough Mandalorian that's here to protect me?" she asked cheekily.

He would have thought she was mocking him, but the smile on her face and warmth in her eyes easily conveyed her amusement. Apparently, the Jedi had a healthy sense of humor, or at least this one did, despite everything he had heard about them being emotionally constipated do-gooders. He had mostly heard that from Dubaku, a bounty hunter he once traipsed all over the galaxy with, and random grumbling Sith so his sources might have been a tad biased.

Her expression sobered as she started walking up the ramp to the gunhouse, "sorry, next time I'll let you know. I haven't worked with someone new in a while. My usual companions are used to my style."

"A few more firefights and I'll catch on," he said, falling into step next to her. "I'm a quick study."

"I bet you are," she said, that amused tone back in her voice as she detached her lightsabers from her belt. They could easily hear that the next group of droids was on the other side of the wall. She stepped in front of him, preparing to dart around the corner before she craned her neck over her shoulder to see him.

"Oh and Torian? Please call me Noara."

He nodded, it would be easier to be on first name basis with her after all and followed her around the corner.

The rest of their afternoon had basically gone that way. Torian would drive the speeder to the next gunhouse, Noara sitting on the back and holding on to him for balance, ditch the speeder before it gave them away, clear out the droids, and slice the guns control panel to aim them at the factory's shields.

All the while they exchanged a friendly witty banter. For Torian it was like running with Dubaku again. The level of ease with which they worked, never stepping on the other's toes, taunting the enemy and poking playfully at each other. She'd ask him about the Mando'a words he said, seeming genuinely curious about their meanings and asking him to repeat them a few times so she could try pronouncing them herself.

They worked quickly and soon arrived at the last gun, the one with the master controls. From here they could remotely activate all the perimeter guns. Noara was keeping an eye out for any reinforcements while Torian finished slicing into the computer station before activating his comm device.

"Guns hot. Ready to target the droids and factory defenses."

"We have the shields down." Breyer Chorn responded. Torian had also given her a rundown of who was leading each group, so she knew who to expect to hear from in case something happened to him and she had to finish the mission on her own. "Give the place a pounding."

"Where are you?" Torian asked, typing in the coordinates for the guns to target.

"Still inside the perimeter. The droids… they outflanked us. Couldn't withdraw."

Torian stood and took a deep breath, taking in Chorn's words. If they fired the guns those men would die, but if they didn't they would die against the droids. "Understood." he replied, muting his comm device before turning to look at Noara.

"Those soldiers - they're in the firing zone?" she asked hesitantly.

Torian nodded sharply, "yes. Already dead. There is no honor in being beaten by machines."

He knew what he had to do, what he should do, but nonetheless he was looking at her to get her response. He wasn't sure if he wanted her to object and insist on trying to save them, a lost cause for sure, or agree that for their honor this was the best thing to do.

She shifted her weight uncomfortably under the weight of his gaze before folding her arms across her chest.

"You've served with those people down there. You know what resources your army has. I can't make this decision. It's not my place."

Torian nodded grimly, appreciating her words. She wasn't denying their choice to sacrifice themselves honorably for the cause, condemning them to a dishonorable death and she was also respecting her position as an aruetii. This was a decision for a Mandalorian.

And he knew what his vod would want.

"We're Mandalorian," he said turning back to the computer station to activate the guns. "There is no decision."

The room shook slightly as the guns fired and from Torian's comm they heard Chorn shout, "incoming!" and then nothing more. They stood together, neither speaking as they listened to the guns overhead fire repeatedly.

When they stopped, signaling their targets had been destroyed, Torian turned to Noara. She had been staring at his back the entire time, watching him with watery eyes. She didn't let the tears fall and he appreciated that. Tears wouldn't bring honor to the fallen, only victory could do that now.

"We'd better get back to base. Mand'alor will be planning a new assault."

Neither spoke as the made their way back to the speeder and when Noara climbed on behind him he felt her lean her head against his back. She kept it there the entire ride back and he had a suspicion she was crying but when he parked the speeder and he could see her face as she climbed off her face showed no sign of tears. Together they headed to the command tent to report in. As they were walking into the tent they could hear Khomo's voice as he reported to Shae.

"Recon is reporting severe damage to the inner of ring factory defenses, plus those shields are down permanently."

"And our losses?"

Sweeping his hands out dramatically, Khomo answered her in a pretentious tone, "Twenty-eight seasoned mandalorian warriors. But how they took their foes with them! A thousand mindless, programmable machines lie in the dirt today! Oh, Future generations will sing songs of our brother's sacrifice against the spawn of production line 15 alpha…"

Torian, frowning when he realized what Khomo was saying, stalked into the room ahead of Noara and pointed at the other warrior, "they are dead. There's point in mocking them."

Shae turned to look at them, "not bad hunting out there, Noara. You're no Mandalorian but you pulled your weight today."

Noara nodded at the praise before frowning in confusion. "Since when is it dishonorable for a Mandalorian to be beaten by a droid? I've seen clans fight machines before."

Shae sighed, "yes but not like this. Not for years running. There is little honor is breaking a droid."

"No disgrace in dying to a droid," Khomo added with a shrug, "no disgrace in falling off a cliff, either, but we're Mandalorians, bred for true combat. Not this farce."

Noara nodded, accepting their explanation before gesturing at the holoimage of the factory displayed above the table. "The factory's damaged but still functions. We will need to strike soon, the longer we wait the more droids it will be able to produce for defense."

"I agree," Shae said with a sigh, "but my people have been at this awhile. They need to rest, let off some steam. You, me, and Khomo can plan in the morning when the troops are fresh." As she spoke she started walking around the table and toward the door. Khomo followed but stopped right in front of Noara.

He grinned down at her, "tonight, we celebrate our survival. Come, show us how an aruetii like you handles Mandalorian drink!" He reached out like he was going to ruffle her hair, obviously teasing her, but Torian was suddenly between them.

"What's wrong Torian, worried I'm gunna hurt your new little burc'ya?"

"Osi'kyr! Tengaanar pel nari. Tayli'bac?" Torian snapped back, glaring at Khomo until the other man laughed.

"Lek, lek," he said before turning and leaving Torian and Noara alone in the command tent.

"Call me paranoid," Noara said, "but I don't think he likes me."

"He just doesn't like outsiders, it's nothing personal I'm sure," Torian answered, still looking out the door to see if Khomo left.

"Really? I assumed he was disappointed I'm not really a whore."

"What?" Torian whipped around to face Noara, "why would he think you are a whore?"

Noara shrugged, looking at the holoimage and the marked potential routes into the factory. "When I got here he thought I was lost, even directed me to the nearest Hutt Pleasure Planet."

She didn't seem bothered by what she was saying, more intent on the map in front of her but Torian was even more annoyed with Khomo now. Mandalorians were often treated like ill-mannered brutes, but most were outstanding individuals who just happened to be prone to violence. Behavior like Khomo's only reflected badly on the rest of them.

Torian was trying to decide if he should apologize for Khomo's words when Noara turned off the holotable and turned around and started massaging the muscles of her neck with one hand. She looked tired, and he couldn't blame her. She had just barely arrived before going out with him to attack the guns, and while her fighting style was effective and a sight to behold it looked like it was very draining.

"Rough battle. Probably gunna be a rough party. Not many outsiders celebrate with us."

The offer to back out of going was left unspoken, but she smiled at him. "I'm looking forward to it Torian. I've rarely had the pleasure of friendly Mandalorian company. The Jedi and Mandalorians have spent too much time fighting."

Torian shrugged, "maybe. Don't talk like that in front of the guys though."

She looked up at him curiously, leaning back against the edge of the table, "your people. Khomo said you were bred for true combat, is that true? Is fighting and war and action what a Mandalorian wants in life?" He could tell she was choosing her words carefully, probably wanting to avoid offending him.

Torian nodded, moving to lean on the holotable next to her, not quite close enough to brush his arm against hers. "Honor is life, for with no honor one may as well be dead. That's what we want. Honor through victory or defeat against a superior opponent. That's the Mandalorian way."

"Honor," Noara whispered, eyes downcast like she wasn't really seeing the room anymore but lost in her thoughts, "honor is a good thing to strive for. A noble goal. I was raised to value peace over emotion, harmony over chaos, to live my life in a state of serenity only to be told it's my duty to go to war the moment I received my first lightsaber. We're taught to cherish all life and one of the first things I did in service of the Order was cut down a fallen padawan. Granted he was trying to kill several other padawans but still, the hypocrisy stands." She raised her head and turned to meet his gaze, "it's admirable of your people to stay so true to their values."

He turned slightly to face her properly, "ori'vor'e."

"Ori'vor'e," she said, sounding out the word carefully, "What does that mean?""

He smiled, "it's an expression of gratitude. Roughly in Basic it's 'thanks a lot'."

"I see, how do I say you're welcome?"

"Ba'gedet'ye."

"Ba'gedet'ye Torian," she tried, but her pronunciation was so awful that if he didn't know what she was trying to say it would have sounded like gibberish. Torian laughed under his breath, trying not to embarrass her but he couldn't help it. She sounded like a toddler trying to speak Mando'a.

"Hey, don't laugh at me," she chided him playfully, leaning into him to bump his shoulder with hers. "Unless you are lying and only teaching me bad words to make fun of me."

He bumped her shoulder back with his, "I wouldn't do that to you."

"Oh yeah? How do I know you wouldn't?" She asked, a challenge in her voice.

He grinned and leaned forward slightly to meet her friendly taunt, "you'll just have to trust me."

They stared at each other for a long moment and Torian could see the moment she realized just how close they were leaning into one another. Her playful expression fell away and her eyes widened as her cheeks flushed pink. She didn't quite jump back to get away from him, but it was a near thing.

She cleared her throat, carefully not looking anywhere near him, "um, I need to freshen up and check in with the Alliance, let them know today went well and all. I'll uh, I'll see you later." She turned without waiting for a response and started walking quickly to the door.

"You'll come to the party?" He called after her.

Not looking back, she waved her hand at him, "yeah, yeah I'll be there."

* * *

Mando'a Translations in order of appearance:

Aruetii: Outsider/foreigner (also means traitor but not in this context)  
Burc'ya: Friend, can be meant ironically  
Osi'kyr! Tengaanar pel nari. Tayli'bac?: Hey! Show some respect! Got it? (Rough translation, also worded aggressively)  
Lek: Yeah  
Ori'vor'e: Thanks a lot!  
Ba'gedet'ye: You're welcome.

5/13/18 Note: I edited and added to this chapter before posting chapter 3. The biggest changes are that the entirety of the trip to Darvannis is different than originally and the Bounty Hunter Torian worked with's name changed from Votino and Dubaku (because I have written about him and really don't want to have to keep two side oc's straight when I am not sure how much I intend to use them).

Shyakra is my word I am using to express the idea of chakra (because as someone who also writes for Naruto I feel a bit silly writing that word in a Star Wars story) and my take on how communing with the Force might work. It's basically a bastardization of what I understand about the Force in canon and what I learned in a meditation course I took last year so I can explore this very important part of Noara's life in more detail.

Muladhara is the root chakra and is related to all basic needs. The word "Muladhara" is sometimes translated as "root support" or "base". The Root Chakra sits at the base of your spine, and it is highly responsive to everything connected to your security including how grounded you feel, confidence to change and grow and basic survival necessities.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

* * *

As a Mandalorian Torian was used to feeling a little disappointed when a battle or mission ended, that never ending thirst for action calling for more, even when he knew there would be more the next day. However today he suspected the feeling was disappointment that his time Noara's side was up and he had no way of knowing if he would be assigned to her again tomorrow. It had been a long time since he had felt such effortless companionship on the battlefield. While he had rightly restored his clan's honor years ago there was still a stiffness between him and other Mando's when they first met, like he had to prove himself to each one of them before they would treat him like vod.

He hadn't really noticed until after Dubaku and Mako parted ways from him, deciding to find somewhere as peaceful as possible in these days to settle down after Mako got pregnant. That had been almost four years ago. Torian didn't even know where they were, if the baby had been healthy, a boy or a girl or even how Dubaku was adjusting to fatherhood. However, the idea of the rough warrior with a child was always amusing to Torian.

Noara was the first person since Dubaku that he had such an easy partnership in the field. He wasn't sure exactly why she was here, her help was appreciated but not necessary so far, so he had no way of knowing if they would ever cross paths again.

Which made him doubly grateful that she had agreed to attend that night's festivities. As the only members of the camp she knew were him, Khomo, and Mand'alor herself it wasn't long after the spiced tihaar had been broken out that she had slipped into a seat across from him and stolen his bottle to help herself.

"So," she said after offering the bottle, now several swallows lighter, back to him, "how much did I cramp the big tough Mandalorian's style today?"

He sighed like the nickname bothered him but was internally smiling. "You only slowed me down a little Jetii ad'ika."

"That's it!" She said, jabbing her finger at him with smile, "if you are going to keep using Mando'a casually you are going to have to teach me."

"Are you sure? It's a hard language and we only have tonight." It was also almost unheard of, teaching an aruetii their language-at least it was with one unlikely to be adopted into a clan. A few words here and there sure, but the language itself was only known by Mandalorians.

"Challenge accepted," she declared, "besides I'm a quick study."

Torian shook his head at her antics but agreed anyway. They procured a datapad and started going over some basic words he thought she might hear. He started with simple words like skraan, parjai, vercopa, cabur and mesh'la before she asked him about numbers and they were distracted for a while with counting their drinks in Mando'a. Her accent was still awful, but she was picking the words up faster than he expected. When they were several bottles of tihaar in and working on the saying "burc'ya vaal burk'yc, burc'ya veman" Shae had passed by their corner to see what they were doing.

"You're supposed to be relaxing and enjoying yourself you two," she scolded halfheartedly before she took the datapad away and replaced it with a plate she had been holding when she came over. "This is a party, no more work."

Noara laughed as Shae walked away. "She's very different then I remember. So, what is this?" she asked, pointing at the plate in front of her.

"It's uj'alayi. It's cake, made with nuts, fruit and sweet uj'ayl syrup," he explained, ripping a piece off the flat cake and eating it. "Try it."

Shae's interruption of their impromptu language lesson reminded Torian of something he had meant to ask about earlier, when they were leaving to head to the guns. Noara had said something confusing to Shae on their way out of the command tent.

"Earlier, what did you mean by that thing you said to Mand'alor when we left, about being dead before?"

"Ahh that," she said, picking at the uj'alayi sitting in front of her, pulling off a piece and popping it in her mouth before looking up at him. "You really don't know who I am? What I've done?"

He shook his head, passing the bottle back to her. She took a long swig before continuing.

"I'll assume you know someone killed the Zakuulian Emperor Valkorion five years ago, just before Arcann took the throne and attacked the rest of the galaxy?"

Torian nodded, everyone knew that, but he was curious where this could be going if that was where she was starting.

"I killed Emperor Valkorion."

The words hung heavy between them as their meaning sunk in for Torian. She killed the man the Zakuulians claimed was immortal, which always seemed strange to him since the man was killed and therefore not immortal. But she had done it. His respect for her grew as he considered how powerful someone would have to be to accomplish that. It was rumored that Valkorion had lived for centuries, inciting the claims of his immortality, and on the few times his rule was challenged had defeated his opponents soundly. And yet the petite woman sitting across the table from him defeated him.

"Why did you kill him?" He asked at length.

She laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound, "because he wasn't just the Emperor of Zakuul."

Noara leaned forward onto the table to meet Torian's gaze. "He was the Emperor of the Sith Empire. A man I had been hunting for over a year, a man who imprisoned and tortured my friends and tampered with my mind to make me do his bidding. I lost six months of my life to that monster's schemes, reduced to little more than a prisoner in my own mind." She spat the words out, her voice low and bitter sounding before sighing heavily and sitting back in her seat. After taking a long drink from the bottle in front of her she continued.

"When he disappeared from Dromund Kaas several months before Zakuul showed up that was me. I killed his physical body, but it turned out that wasn't the one that mattered. So, when I was brought before him in shackles, after he had killed Darth Marr for refusing to bow before him, I knew he was going to kill me. I'll never submit to him again. I'd rather die, and have it stick. And then Arcann helped me. He removed the cuffs and even handed me a lightsaber before attacking his own father. While he was distracted I ran him through. I helped give Arcann what he wanted, the throne, and he turned his father he helped murder into a martyr to excuse his war."

She let the words sit in the air between them while she finished the bottle and reached for another in the middle of the table.

Torian's buzzed mind was spinning. He knew the two Emperor's were one. He knew someone had killed Valkorion but he had always assumed it was Arcann's doing solely and he just blamed it on an "outlander" to justify his war, or maybe one of the Dark Council members. Someone feared for their power and greedy for more, wanting to take the Eternal Fleet as their own.

Instead it was the doing of the woman sitting across from him sharing a bottle of spiced tihaar. He had been impressed with her ability in battle earlier, but she had defeated the Emperor twice? He remembered when the news came out that a Jedi had infiltrated the Temple outside Kaas city and defeated the Emperor. The Dark Council tried to hush it up of course, but there wasn't much that happened in that city the Mandos didn't hear about. There had been a lot of talk about which Jedi could have possibly pulled that off, but no one ever found out who it had been for sure.

He studied her carefully as she turned her face to watch the revelry around them, a soft smile playing on her lips, and wondered just how powerful she was. If they had met as enemies who would have walked away? If his old friend Dubaku had faced her as his final mark in the Great Hunt would she have defeated him? If that happened would he have died fighting his father? Would he have ever earned his fellow Mando's respect? Would he-

Torian shook his head sharply, dismissing the rambling questions. He did not want to go any farther down that wampa rat hole. He snagged the bottle she had opened and took a greedy gulp hoping the alcohol would settle his mind some.

It did help him slow down his thoughts enough to realize that she didn't answer his question.

"Hey," he called, drawing her attention back to him from the wrestling match that had broken out on the other side of the fire. "Didn't explain the whole dead thing."

The smile on her face dimmed noticeably as she processed his question and he was about to take it back, regretting pushing for an answer she might not want to share when she started talking again.

"As punishment for my crimes against the Eternal Empire I was frozen in carbonate and hung on the wall of Arcann's palace as a trophy. Nobody knew what had happened to me and the last time anyone spoke to me I was on a battle cruiser that was about to explode. When I never showed up again people assumed I went down with the ship."

Her voice was flat like she was delivering a report not describing her imprisonment by an enemy. Noara held her hand out for the bottle and quickly took a drink when he handed it to her.

"They made a right mess of it too, the freezing that is, gave me carbonate sickness that was slowly killing me. If Lana hadn't found me when she did I would be dead by now, like any other stuffed gundark head on a hunter's wall."

"You were frozen for five years with carbonate sickness?" Torian asked incredulously.

Dubaku had once talked to Torian about the dangers of carbonate freezing, had even said carbonate sickness was the last way he would want to go. It was a "slow painful death that no one deserved," he had said. That had always stuck with Torian, because Dubaku was not one to back away from the kill or show mercy where it wasn't deserved. There were few lines that man wouldn't cross if the price was right but condemning someone to death by carbonate sickness was firmly on the nu draar side.

She nodded solemnly, "and now anytime I run into someone from my past the first thing they say is "I thought you were dead!" or "didn't you die?" On one memorable occasion I got "I thought you had died and I was finally rid of you." Shockingly not everyone is thrilled about my survival."

"And Mand'alor?"

"Says I am in good shape for a dead woman."

"She isn't wrong," Torian said honestly without a thought and instantly regretted it. He almost didn't want to look up and see what her reaction was, but after a few beats of silence he forced himself to lift his head.

Noara was staring at him, her silver eyes wide and mouth slightly open in surprise. Her cheeks were flushed, redder than before which was quite a feat. The alcohol had given her pale face a warm rosy glow that was now far more intense in her surprise. He met her eyes, sure his face looked as shocked as her own if not a bit more panicked, and then whether from the alcohol or the sheer awkwardness of the moment they both started laughing.

She laughed loudly and with her whole body, arms wrapped around herself as she shook with amusement. Torian was laughing with her, his a more subdued sound that was easily drowned out by her's as he watched her. He hadn't meant to say those words, was embarrassed by his lack of control and hadn't drank near enough to excuse them, but they had chased away the shadow that was in her eyes when she spoke about her captivity. Watching her wipe away tears as her laughter died down into quieter giggles he felt it was well worth it.

He was reminded again of how odd this was, the ease and lack of anxiety he felt when around her. He wasn't waiting for the other boot to drop, for her to realize who he was and turn away from him like so many had before in his life. It didn't happen as often anymore, not since his father's death, but it hadn't completely stopped.

However, watching her finish the rest of their bottle and looking around for another one, he didn't feel any of those anxieties.

"We're out of this stuff," she said, wiggling the bottle at him. "Where do we get more?"

Honestly, Torian was impressed she was still sitting upright. She had almost matched him drink for drink, something his fellow Mandos sometimes struggled with. Yet here she was, red faced and grinning in a way that betrayed her level of drunkenness and looking for more.

"Those crates over there," he said pointing to the boxes tucked against the side of a nearby tent. A few of the crates were open, one even lying on its side, so he could see the tops of the bottles still in it. "Sure you want more? You've had a lot."

She nodded, "I do. I have no idea what this is but it's good."

"It's spiced tihaar, and if you're sure I'll grab a few more." He stood up, but she waved him back down, eyes fixed on the box several yards away from them.

"I can get them," she said, stretching her hand out in front of her.

He watched as three of the bottles slowly slid out of the crate and gently started floating over to them. He was trying not to be impressed. In theory he knew the Force could do this and she had done far more impressive things in battle earlier, but to be as batnor as she was and still have that kind of control? It spoke volumes of how skilled she was.

Two of the bottles landed on their table with a soft clink and the third went directly to her open hand.

"Interesting use of the Force," he commented casually as she opened her newly acquired bottle.

Noara looked up at him and grimaced, "I know. Master Doran would have my hide if he saw he using it like that."

"Master Doran?"

"I was raised in the Jedi Enclave he oversaw on Naboo. He was a stickler for only using the Force in "proper" ways." She took another drink and then handed him the bottle.

"The Jedi raised you? What about your family?" He asked, "where your parent's Jedi?" He honestly didn't know if Force sensitivity ran in families or not.

"I don't know my family," she said, tapping her fingers in a random rhythm on the tabletop. "The Order took in kids that tested Force sensitive as young as possible. I don't remember ever not being in the Order's care, but I think Master Doran told me I was not quite two when I was brought to him."

"And after you were grown, you never looked for them?"

Noara shrugged, "never thought about it much, wouldn't even know where to begin. I don't know where I was born, and Starspark is a name I chose, not a family one. The Jedi Code warns against attachments and the Order discourages having contact with our families to make it easier to avoid them." She paused, accepting the bottle back with a thankful smile, "I even think all their records are gone now, they were stored in the Coruscant Temple and it was barely more than rubble last time I was there."

Torian frowned at the casual way she spoke. To a Mandalorian not having family, not having a clan, that was a terrible fate. It was even in the Resol'nare and the Canons of Honor, the codes by which all Mandalorians strove to live. Loyalty is life, for without one's clan one has no purpose.

He knew she couldn't understand how horrible her words sounded to him, that the Jedi Order actively denied their members their families. Even her name had been stolen away. Despite the troubles he inherited from his father, he couldn't imagine not having the knowledge of where he came from, it was the foundation of the man he had become.

"Hey," she said, leaning across the table to poke him in the arm. "Don't look so glum. It's really okay."

Torian frowned at her, "you have no clan Noara, no family. To a Mandalorian that's a terrible thing."

She shrugged, sitting back in her chair again, "it's easier to accept when you know your family didn't love you enough to keep you."

"What?"

"I know some believe the Jedi steal babies, force families to give them over and resort to tricks if they don't comply, but that's not true. Unless the child is in a situation where they are in danger because of their gifts, which sadly happens more than I like to think about, every Jedi initiate is freely given. Our families may have loved us, but not enough to keep us."

She said it matter-of-factly, like it was just another part of life and for her, he supposed, it was but it made him feel almost sick. The idea of a family, or even a clan, deciding that they did not want their baby enough to keep it was alien to him. Mandalorian's cherished their children, their lineage, deeply. It was often said "nobody cares who your father was, only the father you'll be," though, he mused, that wasn't held true when your father was a traitor.

Torian leaned forward, wanting to try and explain to her why this bothered him. He wasn't sure why, but he felt it was important she learn that families weren't supposed to just give up their children.

"Noara-" he started when her head snapped up and she jumped away from the table. At the same time Torian felt something invisible, the Force he assumed, shoving him away from the table hard enough his chair toppled over, and he only just managed not to fall on his ass in the dirt. He had made a startled sound when she pushed him and was about to demand an explanation when two Mandos crashed into their table hard enough to buckle the legs underneath it. They had been roughhousing and got a little carried away.

And she knew they would fall on the table before they did. He looked up at her in poorly disguised awe as she stepped around the two on the ground to hand him the single bottle she had managed to save as well.

"Sorry if I startled you," she said with an apologetic smile, "but better startled than bruised I think."

He waved her apology away, drinking what was left in the bottle she had handed him and looking around at the party. It had gotten to the part of the night where most Mandos were either asleep where they fell or playfully fighting. Usually he would be in the thick of it, he was almost always up for a good natured spar, but tonight he hadn't even noticed what the others were doing.

Noara had also been looking around, seemingly surprised that this was how a Mando party winded down. "I think this is my cue to turn in for the night. Thank you Torian for seeing me through my first Mandalorian party."

He laughed, "don't thank me yet, you might not appreciate it in the morning."

"I think I'll be okay," she said. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," he said as she walked away. Her shuttle had been parked on the other side of the camp but there was enough light that he was able to watch her until she disappeared into the ship. Satisfied that she was safely inside for the rest of the night, he turned back to where several of his vod where having an all-out melee now. He spotted Khomo as was one of the participants and grinned before moving to join them.

He could use the exercise and who knows, maybe he would get a chance to deck Khomo for calling Noara a whore.

* * *

Mando'a Translations in order of appearance:

Vod: Comrade  
Tihaar: A strong clear alcoholic drink made from fruit  
Jetii ad'ika: Jedi + little one or lass, he is roughly calling her "little Jedi girl" in response to her addressing him as a "big tough Mandalorian"  
Aruetii: Outsider, foreigner  
Skraan: Food  
Parjai: Victory  
Vercopa: Wish, dream  
Cabur: Guardian, protector  
Mesh'la: Beautiful  
Burc'ya vaal burk'yc, burc'ya veman: Similar to "A friend in need is a friend indeed." Literally means "a friend during danger is a true friend"  
Uj'alayi: A dense, sweet flat cake made of ground nuts, syrup, pureed dried fruit and spices  
Uj'ayl: A thick scented syrup used in cooking  
Nu draar: No way. Absolutely not. Never in a million years. Not on your life.  
Batnor: Drunk  
Resol'nare: Six Actions, the tenets of Mando life

5/13/18 Note: I edited and added to this chapter before posting chapter 3. The biggest change other than a little rewording and typo spotting is the Bounty Hunter Torian worked with's name changed from Votino and Dubaku (because I have written about him and really don't want to have to keep two side oc's straight when I am not sure how much I intend to use them).


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

* * *

When Noara woke up she could feel her heartbeat in her left temple. She laid in her bunk and counted the beats for several minutes. This was the hangover Torian had tried to warn me about , she thought. She hadn't moved, or even opened her eyes, but she knew that if she did she would be sick. She could feel it, like peering over the edge of a cliff and knowing the ledge was about to crumble beneath her feet.

Thankfully she had a way of dealing with hangovers.

Keeping her eyes closed and body relaxed she coaxed herself into a mild healing trance. This was obviously not the intention her teachers had in mind when they taught her this technique, and other than healing bruises, small cuts and some mild internal discomforts this was the extent of her healing ability. When she was younger she hadn't seen the value in it compared to combat training. Since becoming a Knight she had regretted that decision on more than one occasion. She had, however, discovered her ability to combat hangovers after having far too much to drink in Nar Shaddaa.

The look on Kira and Doc's faces when she got up the next morning without so much as a hint of a headache had been priceless. Doc thought she had some sort of miracle drug and wanted to patent it; he was quite disappointed to learn that he couldn't bottle the Force.

The now familiar ache that accompanied thoughts of her friends made its presence known as the one in her head disappeared. Unfortunately, no amount of Force healing could chase that particular pain away.

The dark turn of her thoughts was her cue to get up. She had no idea what time it was, but when she passed the cockpit on her way to the fresher she could see the faint beginnings of sunrise out the window. After taking a quick sonic shower, gathering her hair back into her normal ponytail and reapplying her makeup, she left the shuttle in search of caf.

The sun wasn't up far enough to have warmed the air yet, letting the chill of night linger a little longer, but there was already activity around the camp. It wasn't hard to find the mess tent even if Torian hadn't pointed it out to her the day before, it was the largest and the smells wafting out of it were unmistakable.

Several people were working inside, prepping food for the rest of the camp and it only took quick inquiry to find where their caf distiller was. She poured herself a large mug and brought it up to her nose to smell the brew. It had the familiar undercurrent of fresh ground caf beans, but there was a different scent she didn't recognize. She took a careful sip, knowing it was hot from the way the mug was warming her fingers. The caf was flavored with some mix of spices that gave it a rich and slightly spicy flavor. She smiled as she lowered the cup. It was delicious. Of all the things she didn't didn't know about Mandalorian's the fact that, so far, everything they made tasted amazing was very unexpected and welcome.

Thanking the Mandalorian who directed her to the caf she ducked back out of the tent to find a good place to enjoy her drink. The camp itself was surrounded on one side by the remains of an old city, empty since the invasion of Zakuul, and by a ravine on the other side. She made her way over to the ravine, finding a large flat and steady rock on the edge of the cliff to sit on.

Noara sat facing the sunrise properly, letting it slowly warm her cool skin while the caf warmed her from within. Later in the day she would be annoyed at the steadily building heat in the air but right now it was perfect. It reminded her of mornings on Naboo in her childhood, when the temperature never got much warmer than this. With her eyes closed all that was missing was the sound of ocean waves and the calls of local wildlife. She stayed that way, contend to slip into a light morning meditation while sipping lazily at the warm beverage.

* * *

Torian ducked out of the command tent and started walking across the compound toward Noara's shuttle. After checking in with Mand'alor she had asked him to check in on their resident Jedi, both to make sure she was ready for the day's offensive and that she hadn't killed herself with alcohol poisoning the night before. Personally, he would be surprised if she wasn't sick; she had almost kept up with him drink for drink, a feat many of his vod couldn't manage.

He was stepping up to the door of her shuttle, debating the pros and cons of knocking on the durasteel door if she might be nursing the mother of all headaches when he spotted her in the distance. She was on the far side of the camp, but he had very good eyesight – it was part of what made him an excellent scout – and with her outfit it wasn't hard to tell the figure sitting on the cliffside was her and not another a fellow Mando.

When he was close enough to make out the details of her face, he could see that her eyes were closed, and her expression relaxed. He knew a few older Mandos that would mediate from time to time, especially before or after an important battle, just to clear their minds and he assumed that was probably what she was doing. He also knew that interrupting any of those vod could end in a black eye or worse and while she probably wouldn't attack him if he approached her, he preferred not to chance it unless he absolutely had to.

Finding a nearby stack of shipping containers to lean against, he settled in to wait and take the opportunity to study her critically. He had discretely eyed her the day before, wanting to size up his impromptu partner for the mission, but now that he knew more about her he could read more in her appearance.

He thought it was reckless of her to be here alone, with how much was riding on the hope she would be able to take down Arcann where no one else could, but he found it even more reckless that she didn't even take the precaution of wearing armor. She didn't even have something lighter than traditional armor, like nerf leather, to protect her from getting scraped up when she got thrown into a wall or the ground – something that had happened several times yesterday. Instead she wore thin cloth garments, ones that left her arms from the shoulder down and – worse of all – her torso bare and unprotected. It was one of the most vulnerable parts of a human's body, any wound there could easily be fatal, and she had enough visible scars that she should have known that.

Especially the one in the middle of her back. The one he knew had a twin on her front.

He hadn't asked about it, but he had noticed it right away when he first saw her. It was hard to miss, still the light pink of a healing wound, and on display for all to see. Something, or someone, had impaled her and even with his limited medical knowledge he was sure that it should have been fatal. Or at the very least crippling, judging by how the scar tissue over lapped the line of her spine.

It was surprising that such a close brush with death hadn't made the necessity of wearing proper armor obvious.

But he couldn't do anything about her abysmal choices in battle gear; they were friendly, but he felt lecturing her about her clothing that would be crossing a line somewhere. Instead he had volunteered to accompany her again today. That was the only way he could insure someone was watching her back. She hadn't needed it the day before, but even the best warrior could have an off day and with how much she drank the night before he wasn't sure she would be on top of her game.

He would feel terribly guilty if she died because a hangover she got from drinking with him slowed her reaction time at a critical moment.

In the bright morning light, she looked even paler than she had the day before, especially with the contrast between her complexion and the dark purple face paint she wore around her eyes and on her lips. Her shoulders and upper arms were already showing the effects of exposure, the telltale pink of a fresh sunburn. Sizing her up from a slight distance, he was struck by how small she was; slim and compact in a way he wasn't used to seeing in a warrior, something he couldn't deny she was in her own way. While it was not a universal opinion, many Mandolorians didn't feel that Jedi were proper warriors, that their skill was more from a fluke of genetics than a measure of their worth as an opponent.

He was undecided about how he viewed the Force, and it was more than a little strange to be on the same side of a battle as a Jedi - a group his people had faced in war more than once but even during the height of the party the night before he hadn't sensed any negative feelings toward his vod from the woman. She was friendly to anyone who spoke to her, curious about their customs and game to try their drink and food. There wasn't much more they could ask of an outsider really.

Her face paint was strange though, something he would expect to see on a bounty hunter or one of his vod, not a Jedi. After years around Mako he knew the difference between traditional make up and the face paints warriors used. There seemed to be too much deliberation in hers, the way it swept toward her hairline and was curved to a point along her nose around her eyes. The paint on her lips was even more striking, the top covered completely but a single strip of purple down the center of the lower. He was sure there must be a meaning to it, but it was lost of him. It had occurred to him that he found her quite attractive, just not in the way he usually found women attractive. He had been taught that strength was where beauty laid, in hard muscles and firm features, and personalities that didn't waver - but she was alluring in the way her softness and size was deceiving. She looked innocent and helpless, like she couldn't hold her own in a fight – that was why he had offered to protect her when they met – only to drop that veil and show a warrior's heart under that Jedi sentimentality.

Torian was stirred from his thoughts when Noara stood up, and for a moment he thought she had noticed his gaze focused on her. He was still a few yards away, but was easily close enough to have drawn her attention.

However, she didn't turn to face him but instead set a caf mug on the ground off to the side before returning to her spot in the center of the large rock she had chosen to sit on. He watched curiously as she reached her hands above her head, pulling her body taunt as she stretched out the muscles of her back. From where he was standing he could see her take several deep breaths before she leaned forward, stretching down to press her palms flat on the ground in front of her. She straightened and moved through several other maneuvers, stretching her limbs and core while surprising him by the range of her flexibility.

When she was finished stretching she removed one of her lightsabers in her right hand, activating the blade with a soft hiss, and settled into a ready stance with legs shoulder width apart. She held her left hand out to the side, pointing with two fingers toward the ravine and her face turned to follow the line of her arm. Her right hand was near her face, holding her saber to follow the line of her left arm and close enough that the blue glow of the blade lit up her face even in the morning light.

Once she had assumed what looked like a starting battle position, he had a fairly good idea what she was doing. He was proven right when she started to move, performing a series of thrusts, parries and complicated foot movements and spins that looks far to practiced to be free form. At first her movements were effortless, fluid and graceful. It actually reminded him of a dance he had once seen performed on Nar Shaddaa while getting some down time with Dubaku in a cantina. The dancing girl, who managed to wear even less clothing than Noara, had danced with two long curved blades and sparkled and shone in the light as she moved.

Noara's blade didn't need the neon lights of a seedy cantina to shine, or the steadily rising sun, but was far more alluring with the way it hummed through the air. Some of the sweeps she made with it were fast enough it seemed to blur, leaving a trail of blue in it's wake that he knew was a trick of the eye.

As she progressed through what he assumed was a rather lengthy routine, she slowed and her movements became less sure. He straightened to watch her more properly, suddenly concerned that perhaps this wasn't the best exercise to do while holding a blade of unshielded plasma.

He saw her mistake before she noticed it, her foot not lifting high enough off the ground and getting caught on the back of her other boot. At the same moment he realized that she was dangerously close to the edge of the ravine. He darted forward, hoping to catch her as she deactivated her saber and tossed it to the dirt behind her. She threw out her arms in an attempt to steady herself as he reached her and with an arm around her torso pulled her back from where she had started to topple forward. Her back hit his chest piece harder than he intended and she made a sound that he wasn't sure if it was pain or surprise. Her hands grabbed his arm, hugging his arm to her chest, as she caught her breath.

"What the kriff were you thinking?" He demanded, sounding harsher than intended but he could still feel his heart pounding. Jedi or no, that fall would have killed her.

She tilted her head back against his chest to look up and him. If she was surprised he was there, or that he had caught her, it didn't show on her face and she flashed him a sheepish smile.

"Ori'vor'e Torian," she said, still a little breathless.

He shook his head in exasperation and guided her away from the ledge before letting go of her and stepping away.

"Seriously Noara, what were you thinking?"

She was hooking her lightsaber back onto her belt and looked up at him and grimaced. "I was working on my katas, I'm trying to learn a new lightsaber style but I keep messing up on the 11th position."

He folded his arms across his chest and stared at her, "and you thought trying to do it on the edge of a cliff was a good idea?"

"I'll admit that wasn't my brightest moment," she condeeded, picking up her empty mug and turning back to face him. "It was a good spot to watch the sun come up though. In all seriousness, thank you for catching me."

He sighed heavily before dropping his arms and saying, "ba'gedet'ye. So a new style? Planning on changing how you fight?"

Noara shook her head. "No this is more of "just in case" thing. I only know one form, Jar'Kai fully. It's the only dual wielding form and I'm fairly good at it but with a single blade," she grimaced, "I'm little better than an initiate. If I lost one of my sabers during a fight, or one of my arms was injured I'd be in trouble. Normally my Master would have taught me his style, he used a single blade but he di-can't so I'm trying to teach myself."

Torian nodded his understanding. "You just have caf, or did you eat already?"

"Just caf," she smiled, grateful that he didn't question her awkward pause when she stumbled over her words. "But oh what wonderful caf it was. I don't know what's in it but I love it Torian." Honestly she was hoping to pinch the recipe before she left, she would be devastated if she couldn't have it again once she parted ways with her current company.

"Glad you liked it. Mand'alor asked me to make sure you've had something to eat before we meet to plan today's attack. It's gunna be a long day" he said, motioning for her to walk with him to the mess tent. "Personally I think she wanted me to make sure your hangover wasn't killing you."

"I'm sure she did, well you can inform her that I am not feeling any hangover at all at the moment." Shae didn't need to know that she had actually woken up with a hangover, one that would have probably even kept Doc in bed for the day. This way she kept her dignity, and if her being in perfect spirits and health today annoyed Khomo all the better.

She followed Torian back into the mess tent and went straight to the caf distiller to refill her mug before allowing him to herd her over to get a tray of food. Breakfast consisted of some kind of egg scrambled with spices and vegetables, a few links of meat she couldn't identify but smelled wonderful, and a toasted slice of bread. Torian led her to a few empty seats and they sat side by side across from two other Mandalorians that greeted Torian and ignored Noara.

Judging by the look she saw on Torian's face, he didn't appreciate the snub on her behalf but honestly Noara didn't mind. It was like how it had been refreshing that Torian hadn't known exactly who she was when they met. It gave her a chance to feel less on display when everyone around her wasn't vivieing for her attention or watching her to see if she was going to start doling out orders, or looking at her like all their hopes for peace rested on her shoulders alone.

For a few more minutes of no one expecting her to save the galaxy she was fine with being snubbed.

She eagerly dug into her food, happy to find that Mandalorian cooking was as good as their beverages and desserts. It was probably the spices, everything was heavily seasoned but balanced perfectly.

Maybe she could steal one of their cooks when she left. Or perhaps it would be easier to just get some of their recipes.

Resolved to ask about it before she left, she finished her food and took her time savoring her caf while Torian ate at a much less hurried pace.

After finishing their meal they headed over to the command tent where Shae and Khomo were waiting for them, the holotable already displaying the limited factory schematics they had. Khomo had a particularly impressive black eye that made Noara hiss in sympathy when she saw it.

"That's a nasty looking shiner you got there Khomo," she said, not missing the glare the man sent toward Torian at her side. Interesting , she thought quickly putting two and two together when she saw Torian flex his left hand, almost like it was sore from hitting something rather hard.

"Well you are in better form than I expected after last night," Shae said.

Noara shrugged, "I know how to handle my liquor. How's our battle plan shaping up?"

"The first thing we need to do is shut down as much of the production lines as possible, so the factory cant keep sending fresh droids at us. Two of their four power stations are in positions were we can disable them," Shae explained as she pointed out the stations on the north and south ends of the factory. "We can send Clan Beroya after the north power station and Fett to the south. That'll weaken the Skytroopers for the final push."

Noara nodded, "that should work, if your troops are up to the task. They have to know they are vulnerable and will be heavily guarded."

Khomo muttered under his breath, glaring at the map, "power stations. Oh what I'd give for a republic barracks to bomb."

Noara had to bite down the urge to glare at him, or at least remind him she was there. Really, she thought, could you not talk about attacking my people while I'm right here? She let her annoyance go, letting him antagonize her would do no one any good.

"I'm sure they are up to it but the air and sniper units from the tactical post will outmaneuver the clans easily, it would be a costly move to ignore them," Torian said grimly, moving to stand between Noara and Khomo. She felt a ping of embarrassment, she had apparently not hidden her annoyance as well as she would have liked.

Brushing off her embarrassment she studied the map for a moment and weighed her options before coming to a decision. "Show me where the tactical post is. I'll handle the droids and give Beroya and Fett time to reach the power stations."

"You're going to hold off a battalion on your own?" Khomo scoffed, "you're bold for an outsider, but not bright."

This time Noara did narrow her eyes to glare at him. "We'll just have to see won't we?"

"If you are sure about this I have no objections," Shae said. "But I want you to take Torian with you. We win this, we will regroup here and prepare to march inside next. Good hunting." She dismissed them with with a firm nod.

Once they were outside the command tent Torian turned to face Noara, "do you have a plan for stopping a battalion of droids? I'm good but…" He trailed off and grimaced at her.

Noara laughed, "of course I do. Remember the layout on the plans Shae showed us? There are only two point of access from the main battalion armory, where all of the Skytroopers should be stored until activated. All we have to do is get inside and destroy those access points. If they can't get out, they can't attack us. Even if it doesn't stop them permanently, we won't be here by the time they dig themselves out." She paused, biting her lip as her brown frowled in thought. "I don't suppose you have access to some explosives, do you? I might be able to destroy them myself with the Force, but that could take some time and will take a lot of energy to pull off."

"As impressive as that sounds, I'm almost insulted you don't think we have bombs," he responded, waving for her to follow him through the camp. A quick visit to the munitions supply tent and Torian had several high yield grenades stored in his pack. He also snatched an earpiece set to their comm frequency and passed it to Noara.

"Ret'lini," he said seriously. When she cocked an eyebrow at him in question he laughed. "It means just in case we get separated, always have a plan B."

"I see, well let's try not to get seperated anyway okay," she said as she put the comm in her ear as they made their way toward where Torian had parked the speeder they were using the day before.

Once she was satisfied the earpiece wasn't going to fall out if she tilted her head the wrong way, Noara poked Torian in the arm. "You excited to spend another day protecting me?"

He shrugged, "maybe. At least it shouldn't be boring."

She laughed and reached up to clap him on the shoulder, "my life is never boring. Everyday is an adventure."

"I actually believe that," he said as they reached the speeder. "Better get going. The sooner we stop the reinforcements at the tactical post the better."

He climbed onto the speeder and started it up while Noara climbed on behind him. She was adjusting how she was sitting to find a comfortable spot when he punched the accelerator. As the speeder darted forward Noara gave a startled shriek and quickly grabbed onto Torian tightly. Over the rush of air in her ears she could hear him laughing and smacked the front of his breastplate.

"That was not funny Torian!" She shouted over the wind. Judging by the way he laughed again, she figured he didn't agree. She shook her head at him, despite knowing he couldn't see it, and settled against his back to watch the scenery pass by.

When they arrived Noara was impressed with Torian's mind for maps. He had looked at the map in the command tent for about a minute and that was all he had needed. Despite having a copy on his personal holocomm, just as Noara had her own, he easily directed the speeder right to the entrance to the tactical post without once having to consult his map.

In contrast Noara constantly found herself looking at her maps when she traveled. It didn't matter that she had looked at it before she left, or that she knew she was going the right way, she just always felt like she had to double check that she was on course. She had rarely gotten truly lost, except that awful time she spent on Balmorra. That planet was impossible to navigate as a newcomer, what with all the cliffs and valleys and the map not clearly marking what was located in which.

Actually that might be where the obsession with checking her maps started.

It was reassuring to Noara that he knew exactly where to go, that they hadn't wasted any time locating the Tactical Post, because both the mission and the other Mandalorians were relying on them being able to stop the droids here from reinforcing the defenses at the generators. While the nobel Jedi in she was raised to be wanted to make sure they were successful to preserve as many lives as possible part of her determination was fueled by the way Khomo had scoffed at the idea she could pull this off. It may have been a bit competitive to feel that way, and far less mature than she liked to present herself as, but no one was likely to question her rationale if they succeeded.

And they would.

Spite could be a great motivator after all.

* * *

Mando'a Translations in order of appearance:  
Vod: Comrade, mate, brother, sister. Seems to be a blanket word for Mandalorians to refer to other Mandalorians as a whole.  
Ori'vor'e: Thanks a lot!  
Ba'gedet'ye: You're welcome.  
Ret'lini: Just in case

This update is far later than I wanted it to be, but things with classes got very busy and I didn't have the larger writing projects like this need. At least through the summer I should be able to update more frequently than this. At the very least the next one shouldn't take long, this chapter was twice as long before I found a good place to split it up.

I did go back and tweak chapter one, adding more travel time between Odessen and Darvannis because I realized while plotting that the time frame I had randomly chosen wouldn't work for, well, anything I wanted to do, and a few typos/rewordings I missed earlier in both chapters. I also changed the name of the bounty hunter Torian used to work with to Dubaku Eze, to reflect the male BH I have been using in my writing. Nothing plot critical was changed, just enough to make me feel better about it.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

* * *

Stepping out of the bright morning sun and into the dim industrial lighting of the Tactical Outpost forced Torian and Noara to pause for a moment near the doorway to let their eyes adjust. Once they could see sufficiently, they started making their way into the building.

"All right you pathetic excuses for warriors," Khomo's voice cut through the silence to boast into their ears. "Three barrels of spiced tihaar to anyone who scrapes more droids than Clan Fett!"

"That's a bet I'd like to take," Noara mumbled, her comm muted so only Torian could hear her. A few barrels to take home with her would be a perfect souvenir from her trip.

"A fool's bargain Fett, you drank the last of the tihaar last night," Jos Beroya laughed.

"All the more reason for you to try," Khomo replied smugly.

"Keep talking Fett and even the Jedi will beat you." Shae said, a clear tone of reprimand in her voice and the comms fell quiet.

They had reached the first turn in the hallway while listening to the banter and hadn't encountered any Skytroopers or other defenses. At the end of the hall they stopped so Torian could take a discreet look around the corner.

"Does Khomo get that if there is no prize a bet doesn't really work?" Noara asked.

"Honestly," Torian said as he peeked around the corner, "not sure he does. There is a battle droid patrolling the adjacent hall, but I don't see any others. Doesn't mean there isn't. Ready for a fight?"

Unclipping both sabers from her belt, Noara nodded. "Always, follow my lead."

They easily took down the first battle droid, Torian drawing its attention while Noara closed the distance and buried her saber into its center chassis to the hilt. The commotion alerted the handful of droids in the room on the other end of the small adjacent hallway and they found themselves facing a hail of lasers. Torian ducked back behind the corner to get some cover before leveling his sniper rifle to aim at the attacking droids.

Noara, to his dismay, did not run for cover. While taking his shots at the nearest droid he tried his best to keep an eye on what she was doing. She dodged to the side, deflected a bolt with one of her blades, ignored the one that grazed the outside of her thigh – burning a hole is the thin fabric of her pants and leaving a dark scorch mark on her leg - before darting to the end of the hall and dismantling the two droids he didn't take down on his own.

Once the blaster fire died down Torian joined her, examining the room as she poked at the burn on her leg.

"You good?" He asked, finding their first objective, one of the two doors that connected to the armory that made up most of the building.

She nodded, moving to stand next to him. "This is one we want?"

"It is," he answered, taking one of the grenades out of his pack. They both moved toward one of the large, round, computer terminals in the center of the room before he activated the device out and threw it at the door.

The moment the grenade left his hand, Torian grabbed Noara by the arm and pulled her behind the terminal. He pushed her against the console, moving so his body was blocking her from the blast. Noara for her part let him manhandle her despite knowing how and when to take cover herself because she found his dedication to keeping her safe adorable.

The explosion shook the building around them, throwing debris into the air. Torian could feel bits of duracrete and durasteel bouncing off his back and was glad he had chosen to shield Noara from it.

When the dust settled, and he looked down to see her smiling up at him in amusement, he groaned and mumbled under his breath, "if you wore proper battle attire this wouldn't be an issue."

"Excuse me," she said, half laughing as he stepped away, "What's wrong with my attire?"

He looked at her incredulously. "What isn't? It offers you no protection," he poked her bare and pink shoulder, "not even from the sun."

Noara scowled at her shoulder, she hadn't noticed it had started to burn. "In my defense I didn't know this was a desert planet. I would have worn sleeves if I did. And what are you saying, you think I should be in full armor or something? That would slow me down too much."

"Not something like beskar'gam, it's lightweight but even a breastplate and a shirt that at least covers your most vulnerable spots would be an improvement," he gestured at her bare stomach.

Her eyes followed his movement and her hand came up to brush the round, pinkish scar on her stomach. "I don't suppose that fancy armor would stop a lightsaber, would it?"

He nodded, taking note of the unspoken confirmation of how she got the still healing scar. "If it's forged properly. But beskar'gam is only worn by Mandalorians."

"That's fair, maybe I'll look into a wardrobe change when I get back to base. Lana gets on my case about it sometimes but I'm comfortable like this."

He would have bet good money she didn't mean that, the smile on her face was clear enough. He gestured toward the hall ahead of them, they needed to move on. They had another armory door to find. "Who's Lana?" He asked as they left the room.

"One of my main advisors, and a friend. I think," she said with a half-smile, "it's hard to tell with Sith sometimes. I mentioned her last night- she saved me from Arcann."

"Sounds like a good friend," he said, leaning quickly around the corner to scope out the next hall.

It was a brief look, most probably wouldn't be able to notice much in such a short time, but he was a very observant person. The hall was easily twice as long as the one they were standing in, with a few large alcoves on either side. There was also several Skytroopers at the end of the hall that spotted him, damned motion sensors, and blaster fire started flying down the hall past them to hit the far wall.

He looked at Noara, pleased to see she still had her weapons in hand and was ready for another fight.

"I'll cover you."

She nodded, igniting her lightsabers. Together they turned the corner, Torian raised his rifle and opened fire on the droids while Noara ran ahead. He followed her at a slower pace, ducking into the first alcove to give himself cover. When she was half way down the hall Noara threw one of her sabers the way he'd seen some people throw small vibroknives. It twisted through the air, cutting through two of the droids before flying back to her hand as she reached the end of the hall.

Torian wasn't far behind her, focusing his fire on the droids on the right side as she took down the others. The door to the armory opened and several more Skytroopers rushed into the fray.

He cursed under his breath, he was too far away to set up the explosive, but they couldn't fight every droid here. He ducked behind a large crate, blaster bolts flying past him as he moved, before looking around to check on Noara. She was closer to the door, already engaging the fresh Skytroopers. He palmed one of his grenades.

He had a moment of hesitation, her hands were full after all and distractions in battle could easily lead to injuries, before he called her name. She turned to face him, kicking the droid in front of her hard enough that it flew across the room to slam into the wall. As soon as she had eyes on him, he threw the grenade to her.

She dropped one of her sabers, letting it switch off and clatter to the floor, and caught it easily. Without missing a beat, she activated the explosive and tossed it at the doorway. More Skytroopers were coming down the passage and the grenade rolled between their feet as she pulled her saber back to her hand with the Force and ducked behind a large spool of industrial cording.

She was barely covered before the grenade with off, shaking the building the way the first did and collapsing the passage on top of the encroaching droids. When he could see her again, Noara was brushing dust and bits of duracrete off her arms. She had been protected from the blast, but close enough that the debris had rained down all over her.

"I give up," she said, stopping her attempts to clean herself off. "I'll probably be dirtier before we finish anyway." She did look a mess, her skin and the black and gray fabric she wore was coated in a light layer of brown dust.

Torian crossed the room to stand next to her and made a show of brushing some of the dust off his vambrace. It slid off easily, leaving the armor piece the right color and mostly clean. "Another good reason to wear armor."

She perched her hands on her hips and shot him an annoyed look. "You know I..." her voice trailed off when the second door in the room opened and a large battle droid flanked by three Skytroopers entered the room and opened fire.

Torian ducked behind the spool she had used for cover earlier, pulling her with him.

"What are you doing?" She protested, despite letting him manhandle her again. "I can take that."

He shook his head, "the big one's a commander unit, has a personal shield emitter. Gotta draw the other's out of its range. Take out the Skytroopers and it will drop the shield to summon reinforcements and leaving it vulnerable. It's a small window."

"Got it," she said, turning to peek around their cover. The Skytroopers had stayed near the commander when they first entered to room but were now advancing to try and get a line of sight on the intruders. She palmed her lightsabers and shot a glance at Torian to see if he was ready.

He nodded and together they both stood. Torian focused his fire on the Skytrooper on the far left while Noara charged at the one on the right. They each disabled their targets and before double teaming the middle one, blaster bolts to the cpu in its head and a lightsaber slash through the power core in its chest.

"The shield!" Torian called, drawing her attention to the commander droid and sure enough, just like he said it would, the iridescent yellow shield around it was dissipating.

They needed to disable it, before it could summon reinforcements and reactivate the shield. Torian was already showering it with blaster bolts, his shots aimed at the central power core and while she trusted him not to shoot her, she didn't want him to have to stop firing to keep from injuring her.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the crate Torian had used as cover earlier and was struck with an idea. She returned her sabers to her belt and stretched out a hand toward the crate and called the Force to her. The crate levitated, floating as though it weighed nothing at all, and when she flung her arm forward it shot across the room to strike the droid on the upper chassis. The commander droid staggered under the blow but didn't go down.

Glancing around for something else to use, she remembered the spool of industrial cord on the other side of the room. She levitated the spool like the crate, bringing up her other arm when her hand started to shake with the effort, and sent it flying past Torian to smash into the droid. The spool was far heavier than the crate and the commander droid crumpled under its weight with a loud crash and groan of metal.

Noara leaned forward, hands braced on her knees and tried to catch her breath. She had never been the best at telekinesis, not with heavier objects and especially not when she couldn't take a moment to meditate and gather her strength beforehand. Attempting that while already feeling the fatigue from the earlier fights setting in was probably not her best choice but she was still getting used to her reduced stamina after her time in carbonate. Dr. Oggurobb had assured her that with regular exercise it should only be a temporary issue, and while it had improved since her rescue she still wasn't near where she used to be.

When she heard the clang of metal and against metal she looked up, worried she was going to find another droid they needed to fight before she was ready. Instead she saw Torian standing over the commander droid, rifle still in his hands and prodding the droid with his boot to make sure it was down. Apparently satisfied, he returned his rifle to the holster on his shoulder and walked over to join Noara.

"Impressive," he said as she straightened her back and shot him a smile. "I've seen those droids take three verd twice as long, and with heavier ordnance than we have."

"Thanks," she said, smiling, "but let's hope we don't see another one until I can get a proper breather. That was harder than I expected it to be."

"You did just fine last night, and you were drunk at the time."

Noara laughed. "There's a big difference in effort required between a few bottles and what I just did here."

"Guess that makes sense," he replied as they left the room, following the other hallway that would lead them farther into the outpost. They weren't sure what else they might find, but it would be remiss not to check out the whole building before leaving.

The hall led them to a control room and a dead end. Noara headed straight to the closest computer terminal and started looking through the systems housed on it to see if there was anything useful. Most of it was of little use to them, just programs that controlled things like the lights and mouse droid rotations. She continued scrolling through the program list until one caught her eye.

"Shiraya's word," she said softly to herself, but it caught Torian's attention and he moved from where he was listening for incoming Skytroopers down the hallway to stand next to her.

"Find something?"

She smiled up at him, "the controls for the perimeter sensors on the main factory. I should be able to deactivate them from here and we won't trip all the alarms when we storm there next." She scrolled through the rest of the system files list and sighed. "Damn, the security system for inside the factory must be housed onsite."

Torian turned his head to the doorway, and although Noara had not heard anything, he removed his rifle from his holster.

"Company's coming," he said as he walked away from her. "You shut down those sensors. I'll watch your back."

"Be careful," she called after him as her holocom started chiming. She pulled it out of one of the pouches on her belt and set it on the terminal, activating it, before she started typing away at the terminal.

"You look busy, how are things progressing?" Lana asked.

Noara shrugged without looking up from her work, "they are progressing. Did you need something? I'm in enemy territory at the moment."

"Ah right," the Sith replied. "Hopefully this will help then, I have a surprise for you. Theron procured the schematics for the Darvannis factory. He sent them to your datapad. They aren't complete, but it should help you plan your assault with the Mandalorians."

"That's great, thank him for me. Anything else?"

"There is one delicate matter I would like to discuss with you," Lana said carefully, her tone enough to make Noara look up from the terminal to frown at her.

"What is it?"

"I am unsure about these new allies of ours. The Mandalorians make fierce allies to be sure, but I fear the arrangement might not last. Despite the code of honor they cite historically they have always had rather animalistic tendencies toward violence."

"You really believe they will turn on us?" Noara's skepticism was clear in her tone.

"Perhaps," she said uncertainty, holding up her hand to stop Noara when she opened her mouth to respond. "I don't mean to say they will plot against us while we face Zakuul, but after that? I'm concerned about the long-term ramifications of helping them rearm. They have opposed both the Republic and Empire in the past, you know that, and razed planets for sport. Imagine what they could do after Zakuul is defeated, and the rest of the galaxy still recovering. Predators like them are beautiful, but they mustn't be allowed to overrun an ecosystem. I think you should consider keeping the plans to yourself, it could curb some of their potential threat."

Noara closed her eyes and took a deep breath and held it while she counted to five, something she had been doing for years when she could feel herself getting angry. She wasn't surprised by Lana's suggestion, despite their mostly friendly relationship she never forgot that Lana was Sith, and a very pragmatic one at that. She didn't hold that against the other woman either, she couldn't help being who she was any more than Noara could help her Jedi upbringing coloring her decisions. In a way she could even see where her concern came from - it was hardly unfounded.

But the insinuation that she would go along with something like this? That set her carefully controlled temper on edge.

She repeated her breathing technique a second time, releasing the tension in her body until she felt she could respond without overreacting.

"Lana," Noara said, frowning at the hologram in front of her as the sound of blasterfire reverberated into the room from the hallway. "I really don't agree with you about this, and I do not approve of withholding information from our allies that could potentially prevent casualties. If we show them respect in our dealings with them, we will get the same in return. I trust Shae Vizla to be honorable, she has never given me reason to doubt her, and I will expect it of our people as well."

"And I trust you to do what's right to ensure our friends stay in check," Lana replied with a nod before the hologram winked out of existence.

Noara sighed heavily, she didn't want Lana angry with her but she couldn't agree with the Sith about the Mandalorians. Maybe some were worth worrying about, but Shae? Torian? She truly didn't believe either of them fit the description of 'animalistic', at least not in the way Lana was implying. Even Khomo, who had given her anything but a good first impression of himself, she wouldn't describe as a rabid beast. He was just perhaps a bit more candid of his love for battle. And a bit of a dick.

She shook her head and turned her attention back to the terminal. The blaster fire had ceased, something she could only hope meant Torian had taken care of whatever company he had found instead of the other way around and she was anxious to meet back up with him. It took her a few more minutes to disable the factory's perimeter sensors, during which she heard no sign of her new friend and grew more and more concerned.

She felt a strong draw to Torian, unlike any she had before, and despite knowing him for little more than a day she knew she was dangerously close to becoming attached to the man. She couldn't put her finger on it, hadn't had time to really ponder it, but his presence put her at ease even in the middle of a fight.

She'd be truly saddened to part ways with him when their respective missions were finished.

Once she was confidant she had shut down all the perimeter sensors to the factory she pocketed her holocom and hurried out of the room to search for Torian.

She found him, looking unharmed, in the room where that connected to the second door they had blown up. There was several more Skytrooper bodies on the floor than she remembered.

"You okay?"

He looked up from the Skytrooper he had been staring at when she entered the room and fixed her with an odd look.

She took a half step back, surprised and confused by the intensity she could sense coming off him.

"Torian?" she tried again, frowning slightly. "Is something wrong?"

He turned away from her and nudged the Skytrooper at his feet. "No, you get the sensors down?"

"I did, finding that was a lucky break."

He started walking out of the room, gesturing for her to follow, "yeah. The others should be almost done too, we should head back."

While Torian watched, Noara pushed against the debris blocking the armory with the Force to make sure it was solid. Once she was satisfied that it wouldn't be easily cleared she nodded at him. "I'll check the other one on the way out, then we can be on our way."

* * *

Noara was not surprised to hear the dulcet tones of Khomo the moment they stepped into the command tent. She had only met him the day before, but he seemed to always be talking when she walked into a room. And loudly at that. She may not have thought he was a wild animal to be tamed, but she certainly thought he was a bit of a loud mouth.

Right now, he was the least of her worries though. Soon they would start the final assault on the factory and she would have to find GEMINI Prime and get it out of there in one piece. She didn't know if it would be hostile, or combat programmed like Scorpio but she really hoped it wasn't. Trying to disable a droid without breaking it was difficult at the best of times. When the fate of their war with Zakuul depended on it? She wasn't sure her shoulders were up to bearing that weight if she failed, it was heavy enough already.

Khomo's laugh that followed his boasting pulled Noara's attention back to the room. She hadn't realized it but she had been walking on autopilot, following Torian through the tent to where Shae and Khomo were speaking.

"Well done," Shae said, nodding in approval at their approach and motioning for them to join her at the table set up in the back of the room. "We are going to regourp and recharge, should be able to move out in about an hour. I think it's time you tell us what you are after Jedi."

Noara sat down across from Shae and propped an elbow on the table to rest her chin on. "I'm here for a droid."

"In a factory of thousands of droids you want one? So, take one and be gone," Khomo scoffed.

"Gee, why didn't I think of that?" She deadpanned, turning her head to meet his gaze straight on. "It's not just any random droid, I need to find GEMINI Prime. It's linked into the machinery somewhere in that factory, might even be running the place for all I know, but it is essential that I recover it intact. It's key to beating the Eternal Fleet."

Khomo looked away first, folding his arms across his chest. "Take your droid then, as long as we have claim on the weapons," he said before turning to Torian and clapping the other man on the shoulder. "Imagine it, the clans rearmed with the spoils of our enemy, led by our new Mandalore. We'll break the siege of the homeworlds and destroy Zakuul like in the days of the Neo-Crusaders!"

Torian shrugged his hand off and moved to stand on the other side of Noara's chair. "You forget Khomo, the Neo-Crusaders lost."

He grinned, "but they left survived and left scars."

"Personally, I'd take a victory over scars any day," Noara said offhandedly.

"And that is why you are not Mandalorian."

"That's enough Khomo," Shae said firmly, giving him a serious look, "dream of glory later. Go, both of you, prepare the clans."

To Noara's surprise Khomo took the order without question, or comment, and walked away. Torian followed him and she turned in her chair to watch him go. She was still concerned about him. He had been oddly quiet since they had split up for a few minutes. Grated, she didn't know him well enough to know if this was normal for him, but she had the distinct feeling it wasn't.

She just wasn't sure what happened to make him pull away from her like this. Did she do something wrong? Or something she said?

Shae's sigh made her turn around to look at the older woman. "One commander to another? Half of the time I feel like I'm making calls just to keep my people together. It's exhausting."

"Anyone can plan a war or negotiate a treaty. Not just anyone can hold an army together while doing it."

Shae nodded, "no. Not anyone can."

"At least your troops are all Mandalorians," Noara said with a smile. "I get to deal with a more diverse coalition."

"Funny. I guess that's what happens when they put loners in charge," Shae said, standing up and gesturing for Noara to follow her to the holotable. "You know, I don't remember you being funny when we met. Or having much of a sense of humor at all. What changed?"

Noara's shoulders slumped a little and the smile on her face was replaced by a frown. She opened her mouth like she was going to speak, paused, and sighed instead. "If you are still curious after the battle I'll tell you, but it will have to be after at least another bottle of that stuff we were drinking last night."

Curiosity piqued, Shae replied, "I might just hold you to that. For now, let me show you the battle plan. If there is anything you want to add now is the time."

She turned on the holotable and it projected a very bare bones model of the factory, with almost no details on the interior. Noara had to suppress a shiver, even in the desert heat the possible implications of her conversation with Lana made her blood run cold. If she didn't share what they had, how many lives would be lost? And for what? A chance of avoiding a conflict in the future?

She knew it might be a naive notion, but even after all the death Noara had seen, between battles and tragedies, after Ziost, she still felt that even one life lost was one too many. If feeling all the life drained out of Ziost hadn't made her heart numb to the value of every life nothing could.

Shaking her head, dismissing the thoughts and bringing her focus back to the moment, she grabbed the datapad out of her bag.

"One of my advisers, the one you call Spy Boy, found some factory schematics and sent them to me while we were in the field. They aren't complete, but it can't hurt to have them," she said, passing the pad to Shae so she could upload the data.

"Anything more than what we got," she said while linking the pad with the holotable, "will be blasted better than nothing."

Once the data was uploaded the hologram of the factory had several sections of the interior mapped out, including the routes to what looked like it could be an armory and a control room - assuming there was any logic applied to the factory's design.

"All right then," Shae said with a satisfied smile. "We can work with this."

* * *

It took most of the hour Shae wanted to let the troops recoup and ready themselves for the next engagement for them to iron out the plan. Having the interior schematics made their original one need to be adapted to avoid pointless fighting. They managed to come up with a fairly solid battle plan and Noara had learned something very important.

Not all Mandalorian food was delicious.

The rations Shae had given her half way through their planning session, a dried fish meal mixture she called gihaal, was so pungent she had asked if it had spoiled. Her stunned expression on learning that it was meant to smell like that had made the older woman laugh.

"It's good for you," she said. "Just eat it and then wash it down with some strong spiced caf."

The caf did help, if for nothing more than getting the odd fish taste out of her mouth.

She finished the gihaal as quickly as she could manage before leaning against the edge of the table to savor her caf as they went over the details one last time to make sure they hadn't missed anything important.

"I think we are as ready as we can be. Even with these incomplete scans, it will be possible to avoid getting trapped in one of these tight corridors. That easily could turn into a slaughter. While we hit the defenses here and loot the armory for all it's got, you can retrieve your droid through here," Shae said, pointing at the rooms they were fairly certain they had identified correctly. "Torian will stay with you, make sure you get to the droid alright. Rearming the clans is important, but if this droid as vital as you say we can't risk you going after it alone."

Noara smiled, "honestly I could probably manage but I appreciate the company. Torian is a good man to have at your back."

Shae eyed her thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. "That he is. Come on, it's time to do this."

Knocking back the rest of her caf and leaving the mug on the table, Noara followed her out of the command tent. Shae walked to the middle of the camp, where several crates were stacked that Noara was sure hadn't been there before and climbed up to stand on the highest one. As if they knew she was ready to start the final push, almost everyone in camp seemed to already be gathered around the crate stack waiting for their leader.

Unsure what she should do, or where she should be, Noara stopped awkwardly near the crate stack and folded her arms across her chest in an attempt to look at ease. Most of the Mandalorians already had their helmets on, creating a sea of anonymous warriors around her. Until this moment it hadn't occurred to her how surreal this was, being a lone Jedi in the middle of a Mandalorian camp and not fighting for her life. Not too long ago being in this situation would have meant certain death for her, not even on her best day could she defend herself against so many.

Everything that had occurred while she was imprisoned was terrible and she still didn't know the half of it, but every so often something would happen that was so remarkably better than she remembered that she almost thought it might have been worth all the pain and death of the last five years - like Imperial and Republic forces working together, not because their leaders told they had to but because they chose to. Even after Yavin that was an almost unimaginable thing.

She had no delusions of being a welcome figure here, she knew almost to the last man they would prefer this be a Mandalorian only operation but other than Khomo's remarks, that she had a feeling were normal for him, no one had actively made her feel unwelcome.

Moments like this gave her something she hadn't had much of since that day on Marr's ship.

Hope.

Shae held her hands up to quiet the last of the murmurs of the crowd. Once she had their full attention she began to speak. "Mandalorians! Prepare for battle. There's no vengeance to be found today. No enemies worth an honor-killing. Today we fight for not for honor, but for a promise, for a future shot at our true enemy. Today we claim their weapons for our war. Today we march. We bleed, exhaust ourselves and die for that promise. Because our true destination will be a battle worth winning." She turned and pointed at Noara, "follow this outsider who fights among us, who made that promise, and seize victory! Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur!"

The crowd broke out into raucous cheers and battle cries, some just shouts of excitement and some Mando'a words or clan names. If nothing else, they were enthusiastic, and it was palpable in the Force. Noara let herself soak in the feeling, ignoring the voice of Master Doran telling her a Jedi must be calm before battle to indulge just this once.

Shae jumped down from her perch to land near Noara. She cast her gaze around and nodded approvingly at what she saw before clapping a hand on Noara's bare, and sunburnt, shoulder.

"This is a historic moment Noara. You aren't one of us, but today the vanguard is yours. No other aruetii can boast that." She grinned almost ferally, "vaabir staabi de mhi ibi'tuur bal tome Kelir parjir ibic akaan." do right by us today and together shall win this war

At a loss for what that could mean, Noara nodded wordlessly and watched as she walked away. Torian had joined them while Shae was speaking, and she turned to look up at him with a confused expression.

"What did she just say?"

For a moment she was worried he was still bothered by whatever had changed his mood earlier, but then he smiled and laughed at her question.

"I'll tell ya on the way," he said as they started walking through the quickly dispersing crowd as everyone moved to their assigned attack positions. "We've got a factory to raid."

* * *

Mando'a Translations and notes in order of appearance:

Tihaar: strong alcoholic drink make of fruit  
Beskar'gam: armor made of Mandalorian iron  
Verd: warrior  
Shiraya's word: an expression used to express shock or surprise. Shiraya is a moon goddess worshipped by the people on Naboo.  
Neo Crusaders: an order of Mandalorians that fought a war with the Republic roughly 300 years prior to the events of Swtor  
Gihaal: dried fish meal mixture prepared from fish that is smoked and dried before being packaged. It is richly nourishing and has a long shelf life making it a staple field ration for Mandalorians, even if the smell is so pungent that even they found it off putting.  
Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur: today is a good day for someone else to die  
Aruetii: outsider, foreigner  
Vaabir staabi de mhi ibi'tuur bal tome Kelir parjir ibic akaan: do right by us today and together shall win this war


	5. Chapter 5

Torian made navigating to the side door Shae had selected as their point of entry into the factory look effortless, but Noara knew she never would have found it. She had the rest of the Mandalorians hitting the main entrances, both because it was a more direct route to the armory, and in hopes of drawing the attention of any forces in the factory away from GEMINI.

As they entered the factory, the distant sounds of battle echoed through the empty corridors around them, proof that the others had arrived ahead of them. "Sounds like the party started without us," Noara said, looking around cautiously as they moved deeper into the factory.

She didn't voice it, but Noara's mind was on edge. They hadn't immediately been beset by droids so it was safe to assume she had managed to shut down the outer sensors correctly, but she still felt like there should have been more security inside the factory proper. The Mandalorians had been launching attacks on the facility for the last few days, their assault today was far from a surprise. The lack of security gave her bad feeling, like a phantasmal itch in the back of her mind. It was a sensation she often felt when the Force was warning her about something.

Unfortunately it was a vague warning that left her feeling paranoid until she knew what it was for.

The first resistance the encountered, three easily dispatched droids, didn't ease her growing apprehension. When Torian noticed her frown as the third droid fell sparking at her feet he said, "something wrong?"

Noara looked up at him and shrugged, "not sure but I have a bad feeling about this, like we're walking into a trap or something."

"Maybe we are," he shrugged, "only one way to find out." He smiled when she raised an eyebrow at him. "Not wrong, am I?"

"I guess not," she laughed. "Let's go spring a trap."

The series of corridors they entered through led them to a large room that was cut into sections by large grates on either end. When Torian and Noara carefully peered into the room they could see Mandalorians on either side of the grate, engaged in combat with Skytroopers each. In the middle portion of the room, that was open to them, there was several Skytroopers and a large Guardian unit milling about. The activity on the other side of the grates are apparently not close enough to trigger a response from them.

There were some advantages to having mechanical opponents, and this was one of them.

Torian exchanged a glance with his Jedi companion and she nodded toward the Guardian.

"I got the big one if you can handle the little ones," she said with a grin.

He eyed the large droid and the staff it was armed with that was almost as tall as Noara herself, and turned to ask her if she was sure she could take it alone only to find that she had already moved into the room. Frowning at her reckelessness, he lifted his rifle and ducked around the corner to keep the Skytroopers off of her.

Torian had to move through the room to get a clear line of sight and ended up standing near the grate that cordoned off his side of the room, close enough that the three verd on the other side noticed him.

"Hey Cadera, how's playing with an auretti?" Torian didn't know the man who spoke, he was more than used to people knowing him by sight even if they had never met.

"Probably feels like working with family, he was one you remember," the second said with a laugh.

"Just don't let her make you do all the work Cadera!"

Torian ignored them and continued firing at the last Skytrooper on his side of the room. He wasn't opposed to banter during a fight, but had learned long ago not to rise to the bait of those who still saw him as his father's son before anything else. Things had gotten better since the death of his father, and Mand'alor's trust in him swayed a lot of options, but he still found himself the target of jibes from his vod. They were just less aggressive now than in his youth, generally.

The third warrior, the only one Torian knew, didn't join in with their heckling. That didn't surprise him either. Rhys had always been the friendly sort. Instead, he was looking past Torian and gestured behind him with one of his blasters.

Torian turned after the last of his opponents fell in time to see Noara duck under a blow that could have easily taken her head clean off. The Guardian was missing an arm, the stump sparking angrily where it had been cut. The Jedi swung one of her sabers at the droid's knee, severing it and making it topple forward. As it fell she impaled it through the chest with her other blade, shorting out the power core.

Rhys whistled as the droid collapsed at her feet. "I don't think she needs help."

After returning the grin she sent his way, Torian turned back to face the other Mandalorians. "Doesn't look like it, dies it? Mando or not, she's a warrior and deserves your respect," he said, looking pointedly at the two that had been cracking jokes, even as the words set heavily in his guy.

Torian gave Rhys a half salute and moved to meet Noara in the center of the room. He studied her expression as he approached, trying to figure out what she was thinking that had her frowning. He wanted to understand her, to know if his concerns were unfounded or not. He'd meant what he said to the others, he wanted to respect her the way he would Mand'alor herself, but he wasn't sure.

He couldn't be sure until he saw how her actions panned out. That was all that really mattered in the end.

Noara led him out of the room without a word, still eyeing their surroundings suspiciously. Torian was about to ask what was bothering her when his comm chirped in his ear. Raising a hand, he stopped Noara so they could listen to Shae.

"Report in Verde!"

"We are in the armory," Khomo reported with a laugh, "was a straight shot here. No challenge."

"Ready to detonate the ion bombs!" Delash Ard said, "listen to them pop!"

"Don't enjoy it too much, we're surrounded down here," Shae said before asking, "Cadera?"

Torian activated the mic on his comm. "Approaching the assembly floor now, should be close." He clicked it back off and nodded at Noara, "sounds like we need to get a move on, or we are gunna be alone in here."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like a good time," she agreed and started walking again. When they got close enough to the next room to see into it she stopped and laughed slightly. "Oh, but this certainly does."

Moving up next to her Torian could see what she meant, they had reached the center of the assembly facility and it could easily become a death trap. The "room" before them was a platform suspended at least 100 yards above the factory's power core. The center of the room was a large machine that the rows of Skytroopers suspended overhead were being filed through and the floor left much to be desired.

Noara sighed. "What is it with Zakuulian architects and floors that don't have giant gaping holes in them?" She gestured at the large gaps in the floor between the rings of transparent and opaque material. "And floors you can't see through? Have they heard of those? It's like those damn bridges on Makeb all over again." She looked up at Torian and he laughed.

"Something funny?"

Torian nodded, "little bit. You're in a factory full of droids programmed to kill you and you are complaining about architecture."

"It helps to keep things in perspective," she said with a grin before moving closer to him and pointing into the room. "See that spot under the assembly lines? They look like control panels, think you can take them out from here?"

Torian lifted his rifle and checked the shot, "easy."

Of the four assembly lines, Torian could disable two from the doorway before they were forced to enter. When they walked around the outside of the room so he could get a shot at the third line three Skytroopers activated and started shooting at them.

The droids were on the other side of one of the large gaps in the floor and, instead of circling around them, Noara jumped across it. Torian had a moment a panic despite knowing she had made larger leaps, it still felt like a needlessly reckless thing to do because if she missed or was shot mid jump and fell there wouldn't be much he could do to help her.

He really didn't want to have to figure out how to explain _that_ to Mand'alor.

Whether by luck or design, the Jedi landed easily next to one of the droids. She had activated her lightsabers before her feet returned to the floor and with two quick swings the droid fell at her feet. No longer concerned for her safety, Torian turned his attention fully on the remaining droids. The brief hesitation he had fighting alongside her earlier was gone, and as he focused on the battle it felt every bit as natural as it had the day before. Together it didn't take long for the assault to be over.

Noara turned to him and grinned, showing that she enjoyed the thrill of battle as much as he did. Oddly, he wouldn't have expected that of a Jedi. He'd met some that had seemed rather bloodthirsty in the past, always as enemies of course, but still wouldn't have pegged Noara as one of them. He was however starting to see that her recklessness didn't just apply to her lack of proper attire.

"You know," he said, circling around the gap in the floor to join her, "if you had fallen down there Mand'alor would have my hide."

"Me? Fall?" she gasped, placing a hand on her chest in mock offense. "I will have you know I never misjudge a jump." He raised an eyebrow at her and she laughed, "and don't you worry about Shae, she's seen me in action enough to know this is just how I operate."

Torian regarded her curiously. He knew from the comments he'd overhead the day before that Mand'alor and Noara had met previously but he was surprised that she spoke as though they were more than just casual acquaintances. Honestly the way Mand'alor had welcomed a Jedi into their midst was even more unexpected, considering her history.

"How'd ya meet?" Torian asked, "Shae Vizla isn't exactly known for her fondness of Jedi, but she likes you well enough."

Noara laughed at his wording. Not _fond_ was a good way to put it. It had been a shock to learn that the Mandalorian who had helped them fight Raven was the same who helped the Sith sack the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Without Shae, the temple would still be standing instead of in ruins and so many lives could have been spared.

She mentally brushed that line of thoughts away, it was in the past and as Master Doran always said brooding over things never solved anything.

"That was a long time ago, and I don't know that her feelings have changed but she didn't seem to mind _what_ I was when I stormed her base on Rishi as much as she minded me making her people look like untrained mynocks." She smiled at the memory as Torian started to lead their way to the doorway on the far side of the rounded room. "There was this couple, I forget their names but Kira and I defeated them and apparently that convinced her to speak with me."

Torian smiled at her, "sounds like you earned her respect."

"Perhaps, or maybe I did after fighting her to a draw afterwards. That was a very _interesting_ afternoon."

When they reached the doorway Noara was surprised to find it completely unguarded. She had felt sure that security would increase as they got closer to their goal but there was nothing here. In fact the only thing on that side of the assembly platform was an elevator. Noara followed Torian on to the lift and examined the controls. There was only one other floor the elevator stopped at.

"This is it," Torian said after consulting thier blueprints again, "the control center should be just above us."

"And hopefully GEMINI Prime will be too," Noara said before taking a shaky breath. "I still a bad feeling about this, whatever the Force is warning me about, I think it's about to happen."

"You scared?" Torian asked, a clear challenge in his voice. There was no going back now anyway, whatever danger she was concerned about they would have to face.

"You wish," she laughed, grinning as she pressed the button. "Just want to make sure you are ready for whatever it is."

"Right," he replied as the elevator started to descend.

They got a quick look at the assembly floor, a large empty space with partial droids lining the walls waiting to be completed, before having to duck for cover. Firing at them from the center of the room was a large humanoid droid with a massive rifle.

"Haar'chak," Torian cursed from behind his cover, looking over to see that Noara had found another large metal container to duck behind on the other side of the elevator shaft. "This might be a problem," he shouted over the blaster fire at her. This droid was unlike any he had seen before, meaning he had no set strategy for dealing with it.

"Told ya there would be trouble!" She shouted back, peeking out of her cover to get a quick look at the droid. Looking for a way to close the distance between them, Noara realized she wouldn't be able to dodge or deflect all it's shots if she just charged in. "Lay down some cover for me?"

He nodded, "you got it." In one quick movement he moved around the corner of his cover and started firing at the droid. Though his shots hit true, they didn't seem to be doing much damage to the droid but they drew the droids focus away from Noara.

Running full out, Noara charged at the droid but just before she got into range with her lightsabers, a jetpack built into the droids back activated and it flew up toward the ceiling. It landed on a walkway above them but didn't continue firing. Noara's first reaction was to start looking for a way up while Torian hurried over to her side. He wasn't looking up at the droid, or even firing at it, but was instead eyeing the surrounding area suspiciously.

His hunch was proven true when several of the deactivated Skytroopers on the far side of the room came to life and started to advance on them. "Behind you!" he shouted, alerting Noara to the approaching danger. He was able to open fire from his position, but she had to leap several meters to be close enough to attack. Her sabers were blurs of blue light as they sliced through the droids around her, none fully armored or shielded making them easy picking. The last one had just slumped to the floor, a gaping hole in it's power core, when the large droid jumped back down to the floor and started firing at her back.

Before Torian could call out a warning she was rolling to the side, avoiding the blasts. Once she was back on her feet Noara threw one of her sabers at it. The blade nicked the droid's shoulder, leaving a gash in it's armor, but no major damage was done. Torian was already firing on the droid, hoping to draw it's attention again. With her limited attack range it didn't seem to find the Jedi a threat and the Droid turned completely away from her to focus on the Mandalorian.

While Torian has it's attention, Noara started climbing up the side of one of the large metal containers that were spread out in the room. She jogged over to the far side of it, giving herself some room to get a running start. When the droid started to fly up toward the walkway again she sprinted, forward using the Force to enhance her speed and leapt off the edge. She collided with the droid midair, managing to land on to it's shoulders and back above the jetpack. Using one hand to hold on as the droid stalled slightly in the air, she drew one of her lightsabers and stabbed the droid in the head, burying the blade hilt deep and straight down it's back. Pulling forward, she ripped the saber out the front of the droid completely destroying the machine's chest chassis.

Torian watched in dismay as the droid sputtered in the air before exploding spectacularly. He could see Noara trying to disengage from it before it blew, but she was too slow and got caught by the blast. It threw her across the room and she collided hard with a wall before falling to the floor.

Torian cursed and rushed to her side. He was relieved she was still conscious and had moved to sit up against the wall by the time he reached her.

"I'm alright," Noara said before he could ask, despite the way she was cradling her left arm to her chest.

"Sure you are," he bit off, kneeling down next to her and holding his hands out to her. "Give me your arm."

Noara grimaced as she carefully moved, extending the limb no farther than she absolutely had to so he could examine it. He held her arm as gently as possible, not wanting to touch her anywhere it might aggravate the wound, and frowned as he took in the damage. It was the hand she had used to hold on to the droid while she destroyed it, and while her glove seemed to have protected her hand her arm from the bicep to the top of her glove was an angry red burn Torian was sure would blister later.

"It doesn't feel as bad as it looks," she said, trying to wave off his frown with her other hand. "There should be some kolto shots in the pouch on the back of my belt if you can get them."

He didn't respond right away, his attention focused on the top edge of her glove where the burn overlapped with the fabric. "This needs to come off, need to get the fibers out of the wound." Torian held his hand over her arm and looked up to meet her eyes. "Gonna hurt like haran."

Noara met his eyes levely and, curling her other hand into a fist, said, "do it."

Torian gave her a tight smile and a nod of approval. It was a necessary step to take before the burn became infected but he knew not everyone was so reasonable when in pain. He appreciated that she wasn't giving him a hard time with this, she hadn't struck him as the hysteric type of woman and it was nice to be proven right. He turned his gaze back down to her arm and started pulling gently on the glove to see just how difficult it might be to remove. It was sticking to her skin in several spots around her forearm and if they had the time he would prefer to cut the fabric and remove it carefully but there was no telling how long they would be safe here.

There was nothing for it, he had to pull it off like a bandage. He debated about asking if she wanted him to do it slowly or in one quick motion but she made the decision for him.

"Torian, please, just do it." He could hear the pain in her words, and the way she was breathing heavier than usual, but her words were steady. Before he started to question her resolve he gripped the fabric of her glove in his hand and pulled it off.

"Mother of-" she gasped, cutting her curse off and biting her lower lip before letting out a shaky breath. "Sithspit that hurt more than hitting the wall did."

Torian didn't respond other than to shake his head at her curses while checking that her arm wasn't damaged too much by the glove. In a ring around her forearm he could see where the edge of her glove had stuck to the skin, pulling up layers of skin deeper than the damage on the rest of her arm.

"This needs to be cleaned, but we can't do that now," he said, digging into his own belt pouch to grab a roll of gauze. "Lucky I have this, don't normally carry it."

"Must be my lucky day," Noara said with a soft laugh, leaning her head back against the wall before pulling it away with a pained hiss.

Torian set the gauze down and reached for her face, running his fingers carefully over the back of her head around her pony tail, checking for any sign of injury. "You hit your head?"

"Just a bump, should be fine," Noara answered and then frowned when he huffed impatiently at her. "Are you mad at me or something?"

Shaking his head Torian started wrapping the gauze around her arm, taking care not to wrap it tight enough that the fabric would stick into the damaged flesh but tight enough to stay on until she could see a medic.

"Hey now, did I scare the big tough Mandalorian?" Noara asked playfully, hoping to lighten his mood. "I promise I'm okay, especially with you here taking such good care of me."

Torian sighed as he finished securing the bandage and looked up to meet her gaze. "Why should I worry about a reckless Jetii ad'ika who can't be bothered to protect herself? This wouldn't be near as bad if you had armor on." His tone was chastising, but the smile playing on his lips softened them. "Now where's that kolto?"

Noara leaned away from the wall and gestured with her right hand toward her left side, "that pouch back there. I usually grab them with my left hand but it's a bit awkward to get at with the right."

Torian had to lean down and reach behind her to open the pouch and find the tube he needed. He pulled the cap off to expose the applicator and jammed it into her leg.

Noara took a sharp breath as the needle stabbed her before sighing as the kolto went to work easing the pain. Satisfied that he had done everything he could for her at the moment, Torian turned his head to look at the smoking reminds of the droid.

"Nasty chakaar that, no wonder you had that bad feeling," he said, standing and holding a hand out to the Jedi at his feet.

She nodded carefully, taking his hand with her uninjured one and letting him help her up, "yeah that was pretty bad. Hopefully that means we're getting close. Not sure how many more fights I have in me today."

Together they started walking toward the other side of the room from where they entered, Torian hanging back enough to keep an eye on her. He hadn't felt a bump when he touched the back of her head, but there was a still a chance she was knocked around enough to do some damage. So far she was moving just fine, the only indicator that she was hurt being the careful way she was holding her arm across her chest.

They had almost reached the back of the room when the comms in their ears clicked on and Shae started speaking. "Torian, din'kartay."

Noara shot him a look and he held up a hand to stave off her question. "Down in the lower levels, assembly floor. We're close to the droid."

"Might want to hurry," Shae said quickly, "there's a few hundred droids deploying toward the lower levels and we don't have anyone to back you up."

"Maybe this was the bad feeling," Noara said, grimacing. "We got their attention."

Torian nodded, "we know we're close, you're gunna need time to grab what you came for. I'll go."

"Alone? But Torian-" Noara said, eyes wide as she stared up at him before he cut her off.

"You need that droid to beat the fleet right?" He asked, waiting for her to nod before continuing. "I'm Mando'ade, I'll do what needs to be done."

Noara was at a loss for words as he turned and walked away. She wanted to stop him, tell him that sacrificing himself was pointless, but he was right. They needed the droid for the Alliance to confront the fleet, more than they needed him and almost as much as they needed her. She was just starting to turn away before he spun on his heel and marched back over to where he had left her.

"I overheard your friend, Lana right?" he bit out. "We're not animals, or mindless predators. We have honor, we're warriors."

She stepped closer to him, reaching out a hand to touch him before thinking twice about it. Her hand dropped down to her side and she sighed. This certainly explained his sudden shift in his mood. If he thought she had agreed with Lana it was no wonder he had been so cold to her earlier.

"I know that," Noara said sincerely. "Lana and I disagree on many things Torian. She's Sith, there is bound to be more than just a few things we don't see eye to eye on. I have nothing but respect for your people, and for Shae, and for you." She could feel her cheeks flush but refused to look away from his gaze. "You knew she wanted me to betray you, but you didn't say anything - to me or Shae?"

Torian shook his head, "words aren't the same as deeds, but I couldn't leave to fight without saying my part. Ret'lini." He paused and sighed, folding his arms across his chest, "I wanted to believe you wouldn't do something like that. I should have trusted my gut, shouldn't have said anything."

"I'm glad you did," she said, smiling and this time when she lifted her hand she laid it on his bicep. "I know we just met, but I'd like to think we could be friends. That could never happen with this hanging over us."

"We are Noara." He shifted to cover her hand on his arm and give her's a squeeze, "now go get what you came for, I'll make sure you're safe."

"Please be careful," Noara said before smirking. "I'd hate to lose a friend today."

He laughed, "yeah, nothing too reckless on your own Jetii Ad'ika. Ret'urcye mhi."

She repeated the phrase, one he had taught her the night before. _Maybe we'll meet again_. Maybe they would both live through this day, maybe not, but as she watched him walk away Noara had a very good feeling about their chances.

* * *

Mando'a Translations in order of appearance:

Verd: Warrior  
Aruetii: outsider, foreigner, traitor  
Verde: Soldiers  
Haar'chak: Damn it  
Haran: Hell  
Chakaar: Corpse robber, thief, general term of abuse  
din'kartay: sitrep, report in  
Jerii ad'ika: Jedi lass, little Jedi girl  
Mando'ade: Mandalorians, sons/daughters of Mandalore  
Ret'lini: Just in case  
Ret'urcye mhi: Goodbye; Literally "maybe we'll meet again"


	6. Chapter 6

The Mandalorian camp was buzzing with activity when Noara returned, the deactivated GEMINI Prime lying on a hovercart next to her. She had expected to reunite with Torian on her way out of the factory, but other than more droid corpses than she remembered, she saw no sign of her friend. Seeing the injured and dead around the camp she wasn't sure if she should be relieved or concerned that she saw no sign of him, but it made her chest tighten with apprehension despite her good feeling that they would meet again. So many had paid dearly for her victory here and she'd never forgive herself if he was part of that cost. Now it was her turn to make good on her promises, to make their sacrifices worth it.

Noara was tried, it had been a long time since she had done so much fighting over just a few days, and the burn on her arm was starting to hurt terribly. She was ready to take another kolto shot, a painkiller, and crawl into the shuttle's bunk. Times like this she missed Doc more than most. For all his bluster and flirtations, he was the best medic she had ever met.

It was tempting to take a painkiller before checking in with Shae once she had secured the GEMINI unit in the shuttle's cargo bay, but Noara decided she better not. Until she was in hyperspace there was no telling if she might find herself needing to be awake and alert and they tended to make her terribly drowsy. She did help herself to a second kolto shot, injecting it into her side. With a forlorn glance at her bunk, Noara left the shuttle to find Shae.

"You look like osik," the Mandalorian leader said in lieu of greeting when she entered the command tent.

Noara grimaced, "I don't know the word, but I am willing to bet I feel like osik too."

"I'd take that bet," Shae laughed before her expression sobered and she gestured at Noara's bandaged arm. "Did a medic look at that?"

"No, Torian wrapped it for me and I've had a few kolto shots but that's it."

"Speak of the devil," Shae said, her attention focused behind Noara. The Jedi turned to see Torian walking toward her and smiled as the pressure in her chest lightened at the sight of him. "Clan Cadera survives another battle."

Torian nodded at Shae before turning to face Noara. "Good to see you alive," he frowned as he noticed the clear exhaustion in her posture, "you okay?"

She nodded, "yeah. You?"

"No challenge." They smiled at one another, both obviously relieved to see the other again, until the sound a throat being cleared pulled their attention back to Shae.

"What?" Noara asked when Shae just stood there, smiling knowingly at them.

"Nothing, nothing," the older woman said, waving Noara's question away with one hand as Khomo entered the tent.

"Victory for Mandalore the Avenger!" He cheered as he joined them, laughing brashly as he bumped Noara's bandaged arm as he passed her to stand next to Shae.

Shae nodded, "it's a good day. The factory is mostly offline and the armory cleared out. For the first time in years we have all the weapons we need."

Khomo turned to Noara and clapped a hand on her arm, not caring at all about the bandage under his hand or the way she winced at the contact. "Thank your spy-" He stopped mid-sentence when Torian knocked his hand on her arm and moved to stand between them.

Grinning as though nothing had happened, he clapped his hands. "The glory days of the Mando'ade are back!"

Moving around them, Khomo left the tent still cheering and shouting the whole way. Noara shook her head at his antics, she didn't care much for the man's attitude, but she had to admit he had spirit.

Shae was frowning. "Dammit, this was a good battle, but I can't stop them. Most of them are like Khomo and are going to want to reclaim their honor fighting men, not machines. Zakuul alone won't satisfy them."

Noara looked up at Torian before stepping closer to Shae with a careful expression. "You can stop him, moreover you have to. I know you lot appreciate a good fight, but endless wars will destroy your culture."

"It's not that simple Noara," Shae sighed, leaning against the table behind her. "The old guard wants the glory days back and the last few years have only made that worse."

"Then maybe it's time for the old guard to stand down for young leaders, ones who support peace, or something closer to it." Noara smiled, "there has to be a middle ground somewhere."

Shae pushed off the table and paced for a moment before she spun around and fixed Torian with a look. "Torian, you looking to march all over the galaxy again?"

Torian folded his arms across his chest and nodded.

Returning his nod, Shae smiled. "Young leaders huh? Well for now, I am granting your request."

"Vor entye, Mand'alor," Torian said gratefully. When he had approached Mand'alor that morning he hadn't know if she would agree with him or not and before he confronted Noara about her friend's intentions he hadn't known which he preferred.

Noara was quiet, glancing between the two Mandalorians and wondering what was going on. She was about to ask when Shae turned her attention back to the Jedi.

"For an alliance between us to work, you will need a clan representative at your side. Someone to liaise with me," Shae's eyes narrowed in a serious stare, "and keep you alive."

"I volunteered," Torian said, "sounded more interesting than anything I've been doing the last few years."

Unable to stop herself, Noara grinned. "Really? You want to come with me?" It seemed almost too good to be true, while she was ready to get off this planet she had truly dreaded the idea of not seeing the Mandalorian again.

Torian returned her smile, "yeah. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, I'd be proud to have you with me," she frowned as she remembered how Shae had introduced him, "but doesn't your clan need you?"

His expression sobered, "there isn't much left of Clan Cadera these days."

Noara's heart hurt at the expression on his face and before she really thought about what she was doing, she had reached out to touch his arm. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged, unsure how to respond to hey sympathy but he was glad she hadn't objected to his assignment. Torian had meant to talk to her about it that morning but her near fall off the cliff had distracted him and then there just didn't seem to be a moment for it. Plus, he spent most of the day wondering if she was going to betray his people, so he hadn't been sure if he wanted to go with her.

Now he that knew his concerns were unfounded he was excited to be going. Torian loved being around his vod, most of the time, but he missed the excitement of his days with Dubaku. The center of a war effort was bound to give him the adventure he craved.

It was a bonus that he would also get to spend more time with her.

Torian liked the Jedi, more than he ever thought he might like one of her kind. His only real experience with them before had been the ones that were gunning for Dubaku and so far, Noara was nothing like them. She was less stiff, less of a hardliner. It was hard to imagine Jun Seros ever agreeing to work with Mandalorians, even if it would save the entire galaxy. Noara hadn't shown any hesitation to join forces with them.

Even now, going over the after-battle reports with Shae, she looked totally at ease amid all the warriors around her. She stuck out terribly, in her revealing cloth outfit, but it didn't seem off to see her there. She was more than warrior enough to hold her own among the strong personalities around her, the way she dealt with Khomo proved that.

Noara stepped away from Shae, smiling, "if there is anything else we need to talk about you know how to get a hold of us, right?"

Mand'alor nodded. "You in a hurry to leave?"

Noara grimaced, using her right hand to cradle her injured arm to her chest. "I am more than ready to take a painkiller for this."

Closing the distance between them Torian examined her arm. He had assumed that she had seen a medic but now that he was looking closer he could see it was the bandage he had applied earlier. "Why haven't you seen a medic?"

"I don't need to," Noara said, squaring her shoulders to look up at him. "You already took care of it."

"I gave you a field dressing, you need to get it seen properly."

She opened her mouth to argue when Shae cut her off. "He's right. Torian take her to a medic and get yourself ready to go." She sent Noara a knowing smile, "besides, we still have things to talk about."

Looking like she was trying not to groan, Noara let Torian usher her out of the tent and across camp to one of the medic tents. "You know," she said, smiling up at him and slowing her pace as the passed her ship, "you could just let me go sleep while you pack."

"I don't mince orders Noara," he said, lying a hand on her shoulder and giving her a nudge forward. "You'll appreciate that when it's your orders I'm following."

Noara huffed, "I don't suppose I could order you to let me go to my ship?"

Stopping in front of the medic tent and pulling the flap open Torian smiled at her, "nope. Manda'lore's orders are absolute."

"That's fair enough," Noara said with a sigh as she stepped into the tent. She stopped just in the threshold and turned to look at him over her shoulder, "be quick getting ready though. I want to get going as soon as we can."

Torian nodded. "Sure."

The Jedi smiled gratefully before entering the tent. Torian let the tent flap fall and went to collect his things. Even when he wasn't going off to a battle, Torian didn't own much. Just the essentials. He didn't think much of it usually, but with Noara's wish to leave soon he was glad he didn't have a lot to pack. She had looked more tired than he had ever seen so far, he could understand why she wanted to get going so she could rest.

When he was on his way to her shuttle to drop his bag off, Torian saw Shae crossing the camp with two bottles of narcolethe in her hands. Curious he stopped and watched her go into the medic tent. A moment later the two medics he knew were in the tent when Noara had entered emerged. After a second's hesitation he headed to the tent himself, wanting to see what was going on. He arrived just in time to see Shae move a stool over next to the bed Noara was sitting on, arms resting on her knee. Her injured one was wrapped in fresh white bandages.

Settling on the stool, Shae reached over and nudged the Jedi out of her meditation. Noara came to almost immediately, looking around to get her bearings before landing on the woman sitting across from her.

"Ah, Shae," she sighed, accepting the bottle offered to her. "I see we are doing this."

"We are."

Noara sighed heavily before opening the bottle and sniffing it curiously. "This isn't tihaar."

"No, it's narcolethe." Shae smiled, "if you liked tihaar you can handle this."

Rolling the bottle between her hands Noara laughed softly. "To be very honest, I was hoping you would forget about this."

Shae laughed. "No way I was going to forget with how skiddish you were about it. I held up my end," she said, holding up her own bottle, "your turn. What changed? You were almost painfully serious when we met."

Noara took a deep drink of the bottle, coughing and shuddering a bit at the burn down her throat. "Wow that has some kick," she smiled, "it's no tihaar but it will do."

Silence fell between them and Noara took another drink before she started to speak. "When we met, I promise I had a sense of humor it was just buried, deep." She took another pull from the bottle, "as deep as I could get it. You might not know this, but I was barely 18 when the Order made me a knight and threw me into the war – one I was never trained for. Fighting Sith Lords and saving the Republic from their own terrible ideas. On top of that they gave me a padawan my own age that I was suddenly responsible for training, with no idea how to do that. It only got worse from there."

Noara lifted her bottle again, sighing at the expected burn. "From then until the day I killed Valkorian, I was constantly on edge, self-conscious and desperate to be taken seriously. I'm not nearly idealistic enough to think they wanted me as me. They wanted the perfect Jedi, the perfect successor to my Master's legacy, so that is what I tried to be.

"I did everything they asked of me and I lost everything along the way, even myself. They say everyone has a breaking point," she said with a grim smile. "Losing 5 years of my life, everything I had ever worked for and then being told I once again I was the only one capable of saving the galaxy? That was mine. I've been trying to pick up the pieces of my life and make sense of it, but there just isn't time. I can't afford to crack. Not until I defeat Arcann," Noara paused and brushed the scar on her stomach with her uninjured hand.

"Not that I am sure I can. He almost killed me. He should have," she continued, her voice angry as she bit out the words. "Every day Arcann sits on that throne more people suffer and die, and it's my fault. I didn't stop him 5 years ago. It's all on me." Noara took a shaky breath before taking another drink.

Her words hung heavily in the air for a long moment before Shae spoke.

"So, the humor, the sarcasm that wasn't there before," she said carefully, "that's to hide all this?"

Noara nodded, "it's safer than being honest."

Shae leaned forward, her untouched bottle held between her knees. "There's a saying my people have. Haat o'r an nuhune. Many a true word spoken in jest. Just because they are jokes, or a mask, doesn't mean it isn't you. You said this was your breaking point, but you're still here. Still fighting. That's all that matters Noara. Maybe you aren't as broken as you think."

"That hits pretty close to home," Noara sighed tiredly before shaking her head. "Nobody knows Shae, and that's the way it needs to be. It would weaken the Alliance's faith in me to know I'm falling apart. That I am not as strong and steady as they think. They are depending on me. I am sorry though, I should have been more serious while I was here. This conversation shouldn't have even had to happen." She looked down at the bottle in her hands, "what do you guys put in your booze? This is my second time spilling everything in two days. Not a good habit to get into."

Shae smiled at her from the stool she was sitting on, "just alcohol, good company and the thrill of victory."

Noara lifted her near empty bottle, "I'll drink to that." Smiling, she finished her drink off and set the bottle down on the table next to her bed. "You, ah… won't say anything about all this to Theron, or anyone else, right?"

"Course not, Mandos aren't really the gossip type," Shae said, looking directly at Torian over Noara's shoulder. He knew he should have left but when Noara had started talking but he couldn't make his feet move. Desperately he shook his head no at Shae, to keep her from saying anything but she ignored him. "Though you should know, Torian has been standing behind you."

With a strangled gasp, Noara whipped around so quickly that she lurched to the side drunkenly, almost falling off the bed. Torian had been a few feet behind her, near the tent's door, but moved quickly to steady her. He caught her but the upper arms, being careful not to grab her injured arm too hard. "Easy there Noara, I've got you."

Noara didn't pull away from him, instead she stared up at him with wide fearful eyes. That surprised him as much as the raw emotions she had bared to Shae; fear wasn't something she had shown the whole time they had been together. Her voice shook when she whispered to him, "you heard all that?" Torian nodded slowly and she took several quick stuttering breaths, "oh kriff, please Torian, please…"

"My lips are sealed," he said quickly, cutting her off before she hyperventilated in her sudden panic. "I promise. You can trust me."

Noara breathed a sigh of relief and leaned forward, resting her forehead against his chest plate. He wrapped an arm around her back, his fingers brushing across the exposed scar, to hold her more securely. Looking up Torian met Mand'alor's gaze helplessly. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now and, judging by the amusement in her eyes, she didn't plan on helping.

Turning his attention back to the woman in his arms, Torian frowned at how she was shaking. Her breath was coming in ragged gasps as she tried to regain control. Her reaction had caught him off guard. He really thought he had a good beat on Noara, but it was like every time they spoke she would do or say something that threw everything off kilter. He never would have imagined the woman who had exchanged playful banter with him the day before and drinks the same night could look so small. It brought back that initial protective instinct he'd felt when he first met her.

He wasn't sure why, but he didn't like seeing fear on her face. Especially not when it was directed at him. It didn't sit right.

It took several minutes for Noara to calm down, long enough for Shae to leave, patting Torian's shoulder on her way. Once her breathing was under control she sat up and pushed away from his chest. She looked up and grimaced. "Sorry about that," she mumbled.

Torian sat on the edge of the bed next to her and shook his head. "Don't be. Everyone needs someone to lean on sometime."

"Who do you lean on?"

"A couple people; Mostly Corridan. He's like a brother to me and I used to travel with a crew, a bounty hunter team," he answered, leaning back on one hand and looking up at the ceiling with a slight smile. "The hunter, his name was Dubaku. I always knew if I needed someone he was there."

Looking down at her hands and fingering the edge of her bandage, Noara smiled wistfully, "that must be nice."

Torian bumped her uninjured shoulder with his own, "I'm right here."

"What?" Noara looked up at him again, frowning in confusion.

He shrugged. Torian knew what it was like to feel alone, most of his life he'd been an outsider among his own people. He couldn't imagine feeling that way and having all the responsibilities Noara had. "You said no one knows what you are struggling with. That can't be easy."

"It's not but I shouldn't…" she shook her head as her face flushed in embarrassment, "I should be stronger than this."

"Why?"

She stilled at his question, "why what?"

Torian turned on the bed to face her properly before asking quietly. "Why shouldn't you be affected by the things that happen to you?"

"I'm a Jedi," she said quickly, as though it was obvious.

"So? You're still human Noara, being a Jedi doesn't change that."

"It's supposed to," she said quietly, avoiding his gaze. Noara fought the urge to fidget uncomfortably in front of him. Part of her saw the wisdom in his words but she couldn't silence the voice in the back of her head saying that a Jedi was the perfect picture of calm, that she was a failure for not being able to keep a better handle on her emotions.

Torian touched her face, lifting her chin to look at him. Her eyes widened in surprise at his action and he could hear the sharp hiss of her breath at his touch. He thought maybe he had crossed a line he shouldn't, but it was too late to abort now. Before speaking he made sure she was looking at him, wanting her to see his sincerity. "You've been through a lot Noara, can't imagine what being responsible for the whole galaxy feels like. You don't have to deal with it alone."

Her breath was warm on his hand when she spoke, a warmth that he felt all through his body, and made him glad he had removed his dirty gloves earlier. "Who's going to help me deal with it, you?" If not for her soft, hesitant tone the words could have been an accusation but Noara wasn't angry. She was scared and now that he knew it he could hear it in her voice.

"Why not? I'm here now and I'm going with you," he said. "From today on my place is at your side Noara."

"You don't mind that I am a total mess?"

"No," he answered simply, dropping his hand from her face.

"Oh. Okay." Noara said, looking away from him and unsure how to respond to his blunt honesty. The tent around them is quiet, the only noises in the air coming from the camp being packed up around them, for a moment before she breaks the silence. "Are you ready to go Torian? I'd really like to leave now."

Torian nodded, pushing off the edge of the bed and holding out a hand to help her up. Once she was standing he retrieved his back and gestured for her to walk with him. "Let's go."

* * *

Mando'a Translations:

Osik: Shit  
Vor entye: Thank you  
Narcolethe: A powerful alcoholic beverage  
Haat o'r an nuhune: Many a true word spoken in jest


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Alliance Shuttle

Destination: Odessen

Torian followed Noara on to her shuttle and took a good look around as she headed straight to the cockpit. It wasn't a large vessel, privacy outside of the fresher was going to be hard to come by and he hoped that wouldn't be a problem for her. Honestly he was surprised the Jetii had not protested to him accompanying her in such close quarters.

As he heard the engines starting to kick on, Torian entered the cockpit and slipped into the copilot's chair. Noara was already in the pilot's chair, strapped into place and flicking switches like a seasoned pro. Common sense said she obviously knew how to fly, she had arrived alone after all, but it was still unexpected to see how comfortable she was behind the shuttle's navigation controls.

"You do much flying?" He asked before even thinking about it, the sudden curiously about her hitting him hard.

Noara grinned over at him, "a fair bit. My old crew took flying privileges away from me so it has been a while." Torian gave her a confused look and she laughed, "apparently I fly a bit like a blind rancor that overdosed on caf."

"That sounds..." Torian's voice trailed off as he struggled to find the right word, "stimulating."

Laughing again as the shuttle lifted off the ground, Noara shook her head. "Kira wasn't near as amused as you sound, she threatened to lock me in my room if I tried to maneuver us through another asteroid belt in search of a short cut."

Letting himself be pressed back into his seat as she maneuvered the shuttle out of the planet's atmosphere, Torian turned her words over in his mind. Depending on the ship she had, that wasn't such an outlandish idea. Dubaku's ship, a D-5 Mantis he had stolen during the Great Hunt, was surprisingly maneuverable. But if she had one of those clunkier looking ships the Republic was so fond off... Well it wasn't hard for Torian to understand her crew's protests.

The shuttle cut through the edge of Darvannis' atmo at that moment and the pressure pushing him into the back of his chair abated. He watched as she entered coordinates into the computer, plotting their course before activating the ship's hyperdrive. The stars in the viewport turned into blurred lines as the ship shot forward.

Noara slumped into her seat once the ship was on course and sighed heavily. She stared at the stars rushing past for a long moment before stretching her arms above her head and wincing. "I forgot that would hurt," she muttered, pushing the harness off and standing. "I am going to take something and get some rest, I assume you can amuse yourself?"

"Don't worry about me," Torian said offhandedly, releasing his own restraints and following her into the shuttle's main cabin to retrieve his pack. He hadn't been able to clean his rifle after their last outing planetside and there was no time like the present to take care of it. There wasn't any kind of work table in the shuttle's hold, but he was no stranger to roughing it a little. He found a good place to sit against the wall and pulled his supplies out of his bag.

Out of the corner of his eye, Torian watched Noara shuffle between her pack and the little kitchenette. She got a drink, pulled the tie out of her hair and brushed her fingers through it, and removed her boots and remaining glove before finally retrieving a medical injector from her bag. She popped the cap off and quickly pushed it into the thickest part of her thigh, injecting the medication and hissing softly at the prick of the needle. Discarding the injector, Noara dropped heavily onto the bunk, curling on to her side so he could just see her face from where he sat.

Torian wasn't sure if it was because she was just that tired, or if it was a reaction to the painkiller, but she was asleep almost immediately after her head hit the pillow. The soft expression on her face as she finally relaxed and the trust she showed being so willing to sleep near him was unexpected. It had been years since he had spent much time with women who didn't belong to the clans and soft was not a word he would use to describe any of them. Since she had arrived, Torian had seen several expressions on her face but the lack of tension in her face as she slept was oddly endearing.

It was a relief that Noara was able to sleep, part of him had been very concerned that her earlier emotional breakdown might have wound her up too much to rest. That was the other reason he had followed her back into the cargo hold, wanting to keep an eye on her just in case. After what she had revealed to him in the medical tent he wondered how often those fears kept her awake at night.

So far Noara's sleep seemed peaceful, at least from the outside, and he hoped that continued. Taking care not to make any unnecessary noise, Torian cleaned his rifle while keeping an eye out for any sign of distress on her face. After a while he relaxed into the steady routine of his task, something he had done hundreds of times over, and the peace of traveling at lightspeed. He always enjoyed traveling, something about the knowledge that he was entirely unreachable by the rest of the galaxy, even if just for the moment, put the instinct to be on guard at all times at ease. He'd found that sense of peace traveling with Dubaku. Their crew, despite their vastly different backgrounds and motivations, had felt like being with family for the first time in his life.

Torian felt that comfortable alone with Noara now, even though she was currently dead to the galaxy.

When his rifle had been cleaned and reassembled, Torian stood and stretched out the kinks in his back before looking down at his chest plate and frowning. The black armor was tinted red with a thick layer of sand and dirt from Darvannis. He needed to clean it soon but first he wanted out of his kute and into something clean. It was like the grit covering him hadn't bothered him until he noticed it, now getting into a shower was all he could think of. Quickly he stripped the armor plates off his body, freezing when he dropped one of his gauntlets and it struck the floor with a loud clang.

Torian cringed at the sound, turning to see if he had woken the Jetii and was relieved to see that she hadn't even reacted to the sound. He didn't know if it was the medication, she was just that tired, or if she was always a deep sleeper but he was grateful either way. Before he could disturb her any further, he grabbed what he needed and slipped into the fresher.

* * *

" _I always loved the stars."_

 _The words, ones she never wanted to hear again, echoed around her. It reminded her of standing in the bottom of a canyon, listening to her cries bounce back to her unheard by the outside world. If tall, foreboding walls surrounded her, Noara couldn't see them through the darkness. She wanted to brush his presence off as a bad dream but last time it turned out to be a living nightmare – five hellish years of imprisonment as her body slowly died and her worst enemy tried to corrupt her._

 _Shivering, Noara wrapped her arms around her torso in an attempt to ward off the chill. Would she be this cold if it was a dream? Did that make this real?_

 _A pained cry cut through the stillness and she jumped, whipping her head around to try and pinpoint the source. The empty darkness made it hard to judge sound, it seemed like the voice was bouncing all around her as it slowly died out._

 _The return to silence was oppressive, pressing in on her from all sides. Noara had to move, she couldn't stay still a moment longer._

" _You'll never make it in time," Valkorian taunted as she chose a random direction and started to run. She could feel her bare feet hitting the ground, the rough texture biting into her skin but that was the only proof she had of movement. Without a frame of reference to fix her eyes on it felt like she was running in place._

 _Until she tripped over something unseen and went flying face first into the ground. The rough texture scratched her bare skin and she groaned in pain before pushing herself up to look for what made her fall. When her eyes landed on the prone body near her feet she gasped, a wave of fear washing over her. She couldn't tell who it was but she_ knew _it would be someone she cared about. The certainty of that was heavy in her chest, pulling her muscles so tight it was hard to breathe, hard to even move._

 _For a long, terror filled moment, she didn't want to look. Didn't want to see whose death Valkorian was taunting her with this time. The pain of seeing her crew, her friends, dead over and over during her long captivity was still fresh. It was a wound that refused to heal, the pain only compounded by the fact she didn't know if it was a lie._

 _But curiosity was always one of her flaws, even when she knew it would hurt._

 _Crawling over to the body, Noara tried to find a sense of calm in her mind as she reached out to turn them over. Her fragile calm shattered when they slumped over into her lap and she screamed, jerking away violently._

Noara fell on the ground hard, pain shooting up her spine but that didn't stop her desperate retreat. She needed more distance and blindly she half crawled half slid away. Large hands caught her shoulders and she lashed out instinctively. Twisting around she swung her fist toward the person restraining her.

Only to have her wrist caught before the hit landed. Yanking on her arm, Noara tried to pull away but was held tightly in place.

"Noara, you're going to hurt yourself. You need to calm down." Torian's voice cut through her panic, drawing her back to reality as he held her still. Slowly her surroundings came back into focus. She wasn't trapped in the dark anymore. She was on the shuttle. She was safe. With Torian.

Before Noara could think better of it, she lunged forward and threw her arms around his shoulders. Hugging him tightly, she buried her face into his shoulder. She _needed_ to feel him there, to physically feel his presence and know that she wasn't alone. That she wasn't still trapped inside her mind.

The nightmare, vision, whatever it was had already faded into a vague memory, but the emotional turmoil lingered. She couldn't even remember whose face had elicited so much panic, but she couldn't shake the cold fear it planted in her heart. It wasn't until Torian's arms wrapped around her that Noara realized the warmth that was thawing the terror in her chest was from the sensation of his bare skin against her arms and face.

Noara froze and squeezed her eyes tightly. "Torian?"

"Yeah?"

She could feel the vibration of his voice where her face was pressed against his throat. Goosebumps broke out across the body and she had to physically stop herself from shivering in his arms. The way her body responded to him caught her off guard, scaring her in a very different way than her nightmare had. Trying to force away the warring emotions she was drowning in, Noara managed to ask the question at the forefront of her mind.

"Are you aren't naked, are you?"

"Not entirely."

Carefully Noara pulled away, untangling her arms from around him until she was kneeling on the floor and no longer touching him before she opened her eyes and sighed in relief. While he was bare chested, Torian was wearing pants.

"Oh thank Shiraya," she said, the words little more than a breathy whisper.

Torian laughed, leaning back on his hands and Noara turned her head to stop staring. "Would that be such a problem?" he asked, laughter still in his eyes.

"Yes," Noara squeaked, feeling her cheeks blushing a bright color as his words made her picture what that might look like. It would _definitely_ be a problem.

He raised a blonde eyebrow at her, "you didn't need to answer quite so quickly."

"That's not what I meant," Noara said, shoulders slumping and looking away from his bare skin. "I'm a Jedi, it would be inappropriate." But not as inappropriate as the way she couldn't stop herself from stealing glances of his perfectly sculpted form.

Torian sat up, folding his arms across his chest as if that would help her be more comfortable. Instead it drew her attention to the way his muscles flexed with the movement and she had to force herself to look away again. "Right, want me to put on a shirt?"

Noara frowned immediately because truthfully, she didn't want him to, but instead nodded. "Please?"

Smiling like he was trying not to laugh, Torian pushed himself to his feet and walked into the fresher. When he returned, he was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and some of the tension she felt melted away. Even if part of her mourned losing the view.

Torian crossed the room to where Noara knelt and crouched down in front of her. "Better?"

It took her a long time to look up from the floor and meet his eyes, the dark blue color easing the tension in her chest. It was almost the same color as the deep Nabooian oceans she grew up swimming in as a youngling.

When she still didn't answer he changed his question. "Are you okay?"

"I guess so," Noara said, though she could tell he didn't believe her. Thankfully he didn't call her on it.

"Do you want to try sleeping more?" He guestered at the bed behind her, "you're obviously still tired."

"I am but I can't, not with…" her voice trailed off and she grimaced. "Not with that so fresh in my mind. I'm going to read for a bit, if you want to rest you are more than welcome to take the bed." Noara stood from her kneeling position, the movement more graceful that she felt at the moment, but she wasn't above using a little bit of Force manipulation to make herself look steadier than she was. Torian's gaze was almost tangible on her back as she retrieved her datapad but when she turned around, he had turned away.

"I'll be in the cockpit while you sleep," Noara said, hurrying out of the small room before he could respond. Between the nightmare and her reaction to Valkorian invading her dreams - even after the bastard said he was going to leave her to fail on her own - and the odd fluttering in her stomach she didn't recognize she desperately needed the kind of distraction her books brought.

Instead of delving right into her current novel, Noara dropped into the pilot's chair, propped her feet up on the console and watched the stars streak past. _I've always loved the stars._ As clear as in her nightmares, his words echoed inside her mind and tainted something she once loved. Stargazing had always comforted Noara, even when she felt the pressure of the entire galaxy was depending on her, just knowing there were more planets and people out there than she would ever know. That even when it felt like it, she was just part of the galaxy not alone at the center of it.

In a twist of cruel irony, now the sight was a reminder that she would never truly alone again. Not unless she could find a way to rid herself of Valkorian's presence in her mind. Until her nightmare he had been fairly quiet since abandoning her in the woods outside her base, and truthfully she wasn't sure if the dream was him or just her mind dredging up her deep seated fears. Either way she doubted she was lucky enough he would stay quiet for long.

Noara pressed the heel of her hand into the familiar ache in her chest, the one that always cropped up when she thought about how much of her life had been manipulated for his plans. She closed her eyes tightly, blocking out the stars he had tainted and fought the swell of emotion building in her gut. Hatred had never been something she was prone to, but she couldn't deny that she hated him for the games he played with her life.

It was one thing to want to kill her, she was accustomed to people trying to end her life, but Valkorian, Vitiate, whatever he wanted to be called, preferred to control her. To coerce her into fulfilling his twisted desires and that she couldn't forgive.

With a heavy sigh, Noara picked up her datapad and turned it on. She needed a distraction, that was the plan when she came into the cockpit and she was sticking to it. Pulling up the file she was pleased to see that there was still half of _A Bounty Contract on Your Heart_ to read. Picking up where she left off, Noara smiled when she realized it was a very important moment. The heroine, a Chiss named Kiah'wen'duosu, was just slipping her hands under Kavik's shirt.

Reading about Ahwen's blue fingers exploiting and tracing the muscles on the pale Rattataki's chest, Noara could feel her own heart rate picking up. These scenes where what had her so addicted to these books, the way the words invoked such strong reactions in her. The kind of reactions she was always told were dangerous. It was something she had never experienced in her own life, being so close to man, because of those exact lessons. It was a slippery slope from intimacy to attachment. It was a risk she never had the luxury of taking.

Too much depended on her.

That didn't stop Noara from wishing she knew what a man's chest felt like under her hands.

Noara jolted upright, feet hitting the floor, when the realization hit her. She _did_ know what that felt like. She knew what it felt like to feel Torian's chest under her fingers, firm and warm as she held on to him for comfort. Touching her cheek, she could feel the heat of her flushed cheeks as she recalled how good it felt to be in his arms. To be so close to him.

Before today, Noara couldn't remember how long it had been since someone hugged her. Years, easily, but maybe not even since she was a youngling. Today Torian had held her three times. Once to save her from a nasty fall and twice to provide desperately needed comfort. It would be easy to get carried away and read too much into that but she pushed the thought away. It didn't mean anything other than that Torian was a good man, someone quickly becoming a good friend. It couldn't be more than that, even if just the memory of his arms around her made her heart race. Romance was dangerous, far too dangerous to pursue and these days far too much depended on her for her to fall now.

Oh but how she wished it wasn't. How she wished this role in life had fallen on someone else's shoulders. Noara sighed and slumped back into her chair, frowning as the ache in her chest increased. It wasn't just a reminder of her missing crew, but also her failings. Attachment was her weakness, no matter how hard she fought against it, and her masters all knew it. Her crew, unaccounted for save T7, were so dear to her that their loss was like a part of herself was missing. It hurt, being apart from people she cared so much about - but it didn't destroy her. Not the way she had been told it would.

Surely that meant the attraction she felt for Torian wasn't bad? She wasn't sure if that was what she felt until now, reading her book and longing for it to be her fingers ghosting across his chest, what else could it be? As long as she didn't act on it and nothing ever came of it, what was the harm in appreciating him as a woman?

Noara didn't think there was any.

As she grappled with the implications of her revelation, exhaustion crept back up on her, making it hard to keep her eyes open. Instead of fighting the pull of sleep, Noara let her eyes close and lost herself to possibilities her mind conjured of the what ifs and possibilities that laid before her, even if she knew they'd never come to be.

* * *

Noara woke slowly, opening her eyes to blink at the stars streaming past and tried to figure out what had woken her up. Something had caught her attention subconsciously, an odd sound that had intruded on her surprisingly pleasant dream.

 _Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._

There it was, a repetitive sound of something heavy hitting wood. Confused, she focused on the sound for a moment trying to work out what could make the noise before remembering she wasn't alone. Torian, who played a very central part in her dream, was with her. Blushing, Noara pushed out of her chair and forced herself to take a few deep breaths. She needed to get a handle on herself if she was going to go investigate. While she tried to calm her racing heart, Noara brushed her fingers through her hair and pulled it back up into her usual ponytail.

Once she felt she could look Torian in the eye without being a flustered mess, Noara made her way to the main compartment of the shuttle. He had his back to her, giving her a clear view of how the muscles in his back moved as he threw a small vibroknife at a round wooden lid he had stuck to the wall. Leaning against the door jam, Noara felt some of her forced calm fleeing as she appreciated his form and impressive aim. Consistently the knives hit the target near the center. It would be an easy feat for her to get a bullseye every time, the Force was handy that way, but it was remarkable that he could do it as well.

When one of his knives hit just shy of dead center, Noara smiled and couldn't stop herself from complimenting him. "Nice throw."

Torian turned and smirked at her. If he was surprised by her presence, he didn't show it. "Great throw you mean, that's almost dead center on a blank target."

Noara rolled her eyes dramatically at his playful smugness, pushing off the door jam and crossing the room to snag the last knife out of his hand. Barely glancing at the target she threw it, guiding it with a touch of Force so it hit the dead center and dislodged his last knife to clatter on the floor.

Scoffing, Torian crossed his arms and shot her a mild glare. "Not as impressive when you cheat."

Noara gasped, hand pressed to her chest. "Are you suggesting that using the Force is cheating?" Her feigned indignation reminded her of Kira's playfulness when caught doing something she shouldn't be and while she felt a pang of loss for her friend, it was overshadowed by the warmth in Torian's eyes as he stared down at her.

"Today, yes." He answered simply, the corner of his mouth turned upward into a small smile.

"Well, that's just rude."

Torian laughed before dropping his stance to collect his kives. Returning to her side, he held one of the blades out to her. "Try without the Force. I dare you."

Eyeing the offered weapon, Noara sighed and took it. It was a just a knife but somehow she had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

Torian watched Noara closely as she took a clumsy stance, knees bent too much and far too tense. Her grip was all wrong, fingers wrapped around the hilt. It was obvious she had never done this before, not without her innate advantage, and he almost wanted to step in and correct her before she learned just how off her technique was. Instead he forced himself to wait and let her try. She did look very uncomfortable, obviously unused to doing things naturally.

After several false starts, Noara hurled the knife toward the target and Torian was quick to cover his mouth to smother his laugh as the blade bounced off the wall more than a foot away from the target.

Noara thankfully didn't notice his amusement. Instead she frowned and pulled the knife back to her hand. "I thought I had that right," she muttered, staring down at the weapon in her hand as if it would give her the answer she sought.

This time Torian did laugh, holding up his hands when she whipped her head up to glare at him. "You've got the form all wrong."

"There is a proper form for this?" Noara's incredulous tone made him want to laugh again but he had a feeling she might not appreciate that so he pushed his amusement away.

"Of course, you just don't need it when you are cheating. For the rest of us everything, down to the position of your feet, matters." Torian shifted into the proper form and balanced one of the knives in his fingers. He waited for a moment, giving Noara time to see how he stood before throwing the knife at the target.

Relaxing his pose, Torian watched Noara glace between him and the target several times. His eyes were drawn to her mouth as she bit her lower lip, obviously trying to work something out and he had to drag his attention away when she stepped close with a hopeful gleam in her eyes.

"Would you teach me?"

A tension in his chest Torian hadn't noticed relaxed and he realized he was hoping she would ask, that she would take his teasing for the friendly gesture it was instead of being offended that he had revealed a glaring weakness. One she probably didn't realize she had. "Of course," he answered with a nod, "first your stance."

Torian moved behind her, he placed one of his hands on her hip and pulled her back against his chest so her body was angled toward the target. She gasped at his action, but he didn't pull away. Instead he used his foot to push her right foot forward slightly where he wanted it. "Stand straight," he said, "but don't tense up. Can't be consistent if you're too stiff." Slipping a knife into her hand, Torian placed her fingers in the correct position. "Keep your thumb here and your other fingers on the underside, otherwise they will mess with your aim."

Noara nodded, her ponytail tickling his chin. "Now what?"

Stepping to the side, Torian wrapped his fingers around her wrist. Guiding her arm, he showed her the correct movement. "Bend your wrist slightly toward the forearm, lift your elbow parallel to the ground and hold the knife back here by your head." After having her demonstrate the movement a few times he showed her how to swing her arm and when to release the blade. When he thought she had a good idea of what to do, Torian stepped back and folded his arms.

"Now to see if you can follow instructions," he challenged before gesturing at the target. "Show me what you got."

* * *

By the time they took a break, Noara couldn't best Torian's aim but she could hit the target consistently. She counted that as a personal victory. It was a strange experience, fighting against the instinct to guide the knife with the Force. Her connection to the Force was so deeply ingrained in her being it was like breathing, something she did without thought, without prompting, something she was only actively aware of when she focused on it.

Suppressing her connection to the Force felt like a physical challenge, like holding a breath for too long, except the lack of Force swirling around her didn't burn the way suffocating would. It made her feel a bit off balance, and oddly cold, but it wasn't a painful experience. Just one Noara wasn't especially eager to repeat even if it was it was strangely satisfying.

With a small smile playing on her lips she moved over to the hotplate to start some water for tea. "Do you drink tea?" she asked as she flipped on the kettle, glancing over her shoulder to where he was collecting his knives. The way he was crouching gave her an excellent view of his backside and she had to bite her lower lip to keep from gasping audibly. Her body's immediate reaction surprised her and when Torian turned she looked away quickly to hide the flush she could feel on her face.

"Don't suppose you have anything harder?"

Noara laughed, glacing his way as he stepped up next to her. "Not likely, Lana made the arrangements for this trip."

"Then tea sounds good," Torian said, sending her a smile that made her stomach flutter. "Got anything to eat?"

The kettle switched off as the water boiled and Noara pulled out two cups to prepare the tea. "Should be some rations in the top box over there." She could hear him sorting through the boxes behind her before groaning. "Something wrong?"

"No just didn't miss living on these." Torian said, joining her at the kitchenette with a handful of foil packages. "They keep you going but real cooking is always going to be better."

"I don't mind them." Noara shrugged, handing him one of the tea cups before sorting through the packages he had brought over to choose a few. "Actually I've spent most of my life since leaving the Temple in the field. I've probably eaten more rations than 'real' cooking in my lifetime though," she paused and sighed wistfully, "if Mando food is always as good as what we had at the camp, I can see where you are coming from."

Torian stopped on his way over to the bunk, tea and rations in hand, and gave her a surprised look. "You thought that was good?"

"Wasn't it?" Noara frowned in confusion as she perched near the head of the bed, turned so her back was against the wall to face him. Torian sat near her feet, sideways across the bunk and started opening one of the rations.

Tearing off a piece of the processed meat product, Torian chewed and swallowed the bland mixture before answering her. "Just generic dishes really. Nothing to get excited about."

"Maybe you are just spoiled by your good fortune," Noara said, smirking at him over the rim of her tea cup. "As a follower of an austerity based lifestyle, I almost never eat so well. As long as it keeps you going, what does taste matter?"

Torian grinned, "you only feel that way because you don't know better."

Noara narrowed her eyes at him playfully before using the Force to shove him, not hard but just enough to shift him to the side. "Careful, don't tease people who can throw you across the room with their mind."

* * *

Torian laughed at her playful taunt. He had no doubt Noara could, and would, use the Force on him if he provoked her. Part of him was tempted to see how far he could go before she did, the other part didn't want to wear the hot tea he was holding. Instead he made a mental note to test that theory later.

The quiet that settled between them while they ate was comfortable and Torian appreciated that. He had experienced his fair share of torturous silences, especially in the years before he confronted his father. Instead of feeling like he needed to so something, anything, to either break the silence or get out of the situation Torian was more than happy to relax and let the stillness be.

After she finished her rations and tea, Noara scooted off the bed and walked the length of the shuttle twice before stopping in front of Torian. She stretched her arms above her head, the movement pulling on the bandages around her injury. "This ship is too small," she said, finally breaking the silence in the shuttle.

"It is?" Torian thought it could do with a second bunk but other than that he had traveled in tighter quarters than this.

Noara nodded. "I want to run, that wouldn't work so well here."

"Pent up energy?" Torian asked, smiling when she nodded immediately. "Didn't get enough action the last few days?"

"That's the problem, a few days of excitement and then I get restless once things quiet down. Kira used to say that even if I got a vacation someday I wouldn't know how to relax long enough to enjoy it."

Torian pushed away from the wall to sit on the edge of the bed and lean forward with his elbows on his knees. "You've mentioned Kira before, who is that?"

The smile that bloomed on Noara's face didn't quite meet her bright eyes. "My best friend, though technically for several months she was my padawan. I didn't do much to finish her training really, but I don't know how I would have managed without her." She wrapped her arms around her bare middle and frowned, "I wish I knew where she went, if she's okay."

"If she learned from you I'm sure she is," Torian said, hoping to cheer her up even just a little, though he truly had no idea if her friend was still out there or not. The last few years had seen a lot of violence and death across the galaxy. He didn't even know if Dubaku and Mako were still out there, but he understood needing to hold on to that hope. "Maybe what you need is a distraction."

"Why do you think I want to run?" Noara's shoulders slumped and she moved back over to the bunk and dropped down next to where Torian sat. "It clears my head."

Torian could understand that.. Everyone had their own ways to wind down. He lost himself in cleaning his armor and rifle, the repetitive step by step process almost never failed to help him process whatever was bothering him at the time. Watching the way Noara fingers were tapping out a random rhythm on her thigh he had a feeling the low energy activity wouldn't work so well for his Jetii companion.

It was strange seeing her so fidgety, Torian hadn't expected that after finding her meditating back on Darvannis. She hadn't struggled to sit still and quiet then but the thought reminded him of what she did the moment she finished her meditation. Almost as if sitting still for so long required her to expel some excess energy she had immediately started doing a complicated series of katas. Until she had tripped and almost fell to her death, the graceful movements had been mesmerising.

"What about those katas you were doing the other morning?" Torian suggested. "There isn't room to swing your saber around, but you could at least get the footwork down."

Noara hummed thoughtfully, "I guess, but honestly I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong."

"Got an example of how it goes?" Torian would be lying if he said he wasn't genuinely curious about how Jetii trained for combat. He had never been a vibrosword wielder, but he figured his old electrostaff wasn't that different than a double ended saber. Just less plasma blade.

"Oh, yeah." Noara scrambled off the bed and into the cockpit. Both the surprise in her tone and the way she almost skipped across the room was almost cute, though he didn't intend on telling her so. Mando women didn't appreciate the sentiment and he wasn't sure a Jetii would be more receptive to his observations. When she returned, still with that little hop in her step, she dropped down on the bed next to him and started tapping away at her datapad. As the video started, she turned the pad horizontally and the holo emitter activated. When she passed the pad so he could see the holographic figure of a Torgruta master preparing to start the routine Noara's bare fingers brushed against his.

Torian smiled at the contact but didn't look up at her face. Instead he focused on the holo, watching the Torgruta's movements carefully. The katas looked familiar, at least at the beginning where Noara had been able to successfully mimic it, but as the older Jetii continued through her set the movements became faster and more complicated. He could see why Noara had fallen when she got her footing mixed up.

It was obviously something that required practice to perfect and there was no time like the present. "Okay, now show me."

Noara gave him a strange look. "Really? You want to watch me run katas?"

Torian nodded, "you're the one that's bored. You got anything better to do for the next two days?" He meant it as a joke but, interestingly, her face flushed a light pink color at his words. If she was like most women he had spent time around, he would have a pretty good idea where her mind went at his question, but that response from a Jetii was harder to decipher. Before he could comment she got to her feet and moved to the center of the small space. With her back toward him, Noara did several stretches that both showed an impressive amount of flexibility and Torian had to shift how he was sitting when his pants became uncomfortably tight.

Trying to look anywhere other than the perfect view of her backside she was giving him, Torian looked back down at the datapad in his hands and focused on the small, holographic Jetii's movements until it was safe to look up again. When he did Noara had already started the katas, evidently not noticing his moment of distraction.

Like before Noara's movements were almost like a dance as she flowed from one movement to the next. While he had been looking away she had retrieved one of her lightsabers and was swinging it, though just the hilt because the blade was not activated, as she moved. Also like before, he could tell when she became less confident as she slowed and the movements became more measured than the fluid grace she had started with. Torian stood just as her foot caught on the back of her other foot and Noara stumbled forward.

Reaching out, Torian caught her by the shoulders, being careful not to grab the injured part of her left arm. "You good?" he asked and when she nodded he removed his hands and folded them across his chest. "You know what you are doing wrong there, right?"

"Excuse me?" Noara raised an eyebrow at him, "you only saw it once, how could you know what's wrong?"

Torian laughed, returning to the bunk to retrieve the datapad. "I got a good eye for these things," he said, starting the holo over again. When it neared the spot she needed to see, he slowed down the replay so the small holographic figure moved almost leisurely through the katas. At the right moment he paused it. "There, the way she stepped back and to the side? You keep missing that step."

Noara eyed the holo carefully before taking the datapad from his hands, rewinding a few seconds and playing it again in slow motion. After studying it two more times, she frowned and looked up at him. "I'm really skipping that everytime?"

"At least the two times I've seen you do it," Torian nodded before taking the datapad back and setting it down on one of the supply crates. He moved to an empty space in the room and turned to see Noara looking at him in confusion. "Well c'mon, let's try again."

"You're joining me?"

"Maybe you aren't the only one that's bored," he said with a shrug. "Besides, I always like learning new ways to fight."

Noara laughed, holding up a hand. "Hang on," she said before disappearing into the cockpit. When she returned a moment later she was holding her other lightsaber. "If you are doing this, might as well be proper about it. Just don't point this end at yourself," she said, pointing at the hilt's emitter, "or turn it on."

Her tone was so serious, Torian just nodded when she handed the weapon over but he was tempted to laugh. He had never held a lightsaber before but weapon safety had been drilled into him since he was old enough to understand what was being said to him. The last thing he intended to do was stab himself, though turning it on just to feel the weight of it was tempting.

Once Noara was satisfied he wasn't about to kill himself, she settled into place next to him and showed him the starting position. Seeing the routine a few times wasn't the same as doing it himself and more than once she made a comment about how he should shift his stance or his grip on the hilt. When they reached the step she continually missed he caught her before she did, reminding her about the backward step she neglected. It was slow going, and Torian knew he didn't look nearly as graceful as she did performing the moves, but together they managed to finish the entire set.

As they ended the set with a bow, just like the Torgruta had, Noara's face was flushed and she was breathing heavier than normal. Despite that when she turned to face him she was grinning widely. "I've never finished the whole thing before, thank you," she said as she took her lightsaber back from him. "When we get back to the base we could do this properly, lightsabers on and everything, I mean… if you'd want to keep helping me." Torian would have thought it was impossible for her face to turn more red but something about what she had said must have flustered her because her face was practically glowing now.

"I'd like that," Torian said sincerely. He had enjoyed the workout, it was very different from anything he had been taught growing up. There was also an undeniable allure to learning how to fight the way Jetiii did. Along with the Sith, they were considered some of the best swordsmen in the galaxy after all.

"You really mean that, don't you?"

Torian frowned, "wouldn't say it if I didn't."

Stepping closer to him, Noara laid her hand on his arm and smiled softly. "That means a lot to me," she said before stepping back quickly and rubbing the back of her neck, almost as if she was embarrassed by her forwardness. Suddenly she spun on her heel, grabbing her bag near the bunk and hurried over to the fresher, all the while talking a mile a minute. "I get first dibs on the shower. I'm still gross from Darvannis and I deserve it."

Before Torian could say protest her claim, at least to say she wasn't 'gross', Noara had slipped through the door and closed it tightly behind her. He shook his head at his quick shift in her behavior. He hadn't known Noara long, but he had a feeling that nothing about his new posting with her was going to be predictable or dull.


End file.
